BTL Banking Questions

My view is that night storage heaters are fairly useless.
They heat up the house at night (whilst charging) when it is not needed.
They run out of heat before it is needed in the afternoon/evening.
User needs to know what heating will be required the next day, to determine how much to charge them.

Without night storage heaters, economy 7 is probably not of any use in a flat: running dish washer, washing machine and tumble drier overnight is likely to cause noise nuisance to other flats.

I agree on night storage heaters: they are really only useful for people who live in the house during the day, e.g. a family with young children, a retired person or someone who works from home.

The only way to assess whether Economy 7 is worthwhile from a financial POV is to obtain the old bills, which I doubt the utility company will permit for all the usual over-egged "privacy" reasons - even though you don't want to know the previous occupants' names, just their useage habits and costs.

Have a look at alternatives to gas central heating. There may be reasons why there are no gas appliances, such as a heavy cost to bring gas into the building from the mains. Even if there is already a gas supply, a boiler and radiators - and hiding most of the pipework for aesthetic reasons, if you want to - represent a significant capital outlay. An alternative is up-to-date electric panel radiators from the likes of Dimplex. These are far better than the old air-blown or storage radiators - they have timers, they look nicer, and are significantly more efficient. The advantage for you should be ease of installation (after redecoration) and no annual gas inspections and appliance servicing. Water heating could be by via an immersion or you could install a small gas heater for instant hot water.

Thanks my gut feeling will be to get rid of economy 7 (my main concern is the seller listed this as a seperate point on rightmove...almost like a benefit) and this brings me to another point with the wording of the lease, which I will post later today on a seperate thread.

I remember seeing a big immersion water tank in the property and I think there was a gas cooker. The heaters in the room looked a little bit like those Dimplex ones except a lot more dated...

Perhaps I need to change my mindset, I was illogically picturing myself living there...in which case I would certainly change to a combi boiler and normal radiators like in my own home. At the end of the day, although the current setup may not be optimal efficiency it is the tenants thats will be living there and so they would cover the costs regardless and so it may not make financial sense for me to plough in a significant capital outlay.

The main thing going for this property is the location - proximity to high street and train station. So hopefully this alone is enough to attract the type of tenant in mind (and hopefully they can overlook the less than optimal utility arrangement), though I will get someone to repaper the walls and a fresh coat of paint (and this brings me to another point with the wording of the lease...)

I will start the new thread now, thank you all for the help.

Seems my leasehold thread didn't make the cut. I have cut across some of the excerpts below:

1) Freeholder Building Insurance:

A) Please note there is a subrogation waiver clause within this policy.

- The Freeholder has paid for this insurance policy and I am not sure if the above sentence is there to solely protect the Freeholder or perhaps cover both of us?

B) Inspect the building/ unit as frequently as practicable but in no case shall the period between inspections exceed 30 days. A written record of inspection(s) may be required by Insurers in the event of a claim.

- How is this done in real life? Do you take photos as proof of date inspections? Otherwise I could simply write fictional records of inspection retrospectively...

2) Leasehold Alterations and Additions

Not to cut maim injure alter or add to the Building or the Demised Premises nor to change in any way the external architectural appearance or internal plan or the materials or architectural decorations of the Building or the Demised Premises provided that the Tenant may carry out internal non-structural alterations which do not cut into or damage the Main Structure of the Building or any part thereof with the Landlord's prior written consent which will not be unreasonably withheld

To demolish and remove any building addition or alteration built or carried out in breach of this sub-clause and to restore the Building and the Demised Premises to their previous condition to the reasonable satisfaction of the Landlord

If notwithstanding the foregoing terms and provisions the Landlord shall at its sole discretion decide to permit the Tenant to make any addition or alteration to the Demised Premises hereby forbidden and the Tenant shall carry out such works then at the expiration or sooner termination of the Term the Tenant will if required by the Landlord at the Tenant's own cost reinstate and make good to the reasonable satisfaction of the Landlord the Demised Premises and restore the same as if such addition or alteration (or such part thereof as may be specified by the Landlord) had not been made and to pay the expenses reasonably incurred by the Landlord of and incidental to the superintendence of such reinstatement and making good

- Does this mean I am not able to make changes to the interior such as changing the current Economy 7 Tariff to a new provider who may make material changes to the property (installing new meters etc). If I wanted to replace the old gas cooker or even the aged heaters is this permissable? Also there is an immersion water tank, which to replace and overhaul would probably affect the piping...would this be in scope of the Alterations and Additions?

3) Demised Premises

all the doors and door frames within or bounding the Demised Premises and the glass fitted therein and within the windows bounding the Demised Premises and

- I agree the doors and door frames form part of the interior, but wouldn't the glass fitted within the windows fall under the remit of the Freeholder?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Reply to the comment left by "Ray ." at "14/03/2015 - 11:26":

Hello Ray

I did send you an email regarding your proposed discussion thread (as above) but it seems it may not have got to you. I didn't publish at the time because I felt there wasn't an intro explaining what you wanted to achieve in terms of advice. That was the basis of my email. It seemed to me that you had simply copied and pasted a list of questions from an email that you had sent to your solicitor but without putting anything into context for the benefit of the Property118 audience.
.

Thanks Mark I never received that email, however I will take another look at the wording of the draft.

Yes the above is currently with the solicitor, but just wanted a second opinion on whether the terms of the lease would prevent me from changing the boiler/ radiator and even making simple paint colour choices without first having to get consent...

Thanks

Ray,

The relevant part of the lease is as follows:

"Provided that the Tenant may carry out internal non-structural alterations which do not cut into or damage the Main Structure of the Building or any part thereof with the Landlord’s prior written consent which will not be unreasonably withheld"

This in effect authorises the installation of a gas heating system if you so wished, provided that you did not alter the property significantly, say to house a boiler. If that was the case then you could write to the Freeholder and ask permission. Be careful though they would probably charge a fee for it. There's not much they don't charge for. And many leases were written years ago and do not reflect modern life. Trying to enforce the breach of a lease legally is nigh impossible through the Courts and extremely costly. That's why a lot of leaseholders disregard them on things like pets in flats, loud music, parking etc. As landlords we have the ultimate sanction of eviction if a tenant breaches the lease. However, owners who own their flats who persistently breach are a nightmare to deal with as the Managing Agents and / or Freeholders do not have that sanction.

Thanks Gary! Yes I Think I will take some of their criteria with a pinch of salt (i.e. walls need to be repainted every fourth term and the colour / quality needs written permission from freeholder)...

I just searched this site for utilities and came across some horror stories where bills are placed into the various tenants name:

- Just before moving out the tenant fraudulently informs of an earlier move out date and switches to the name of the owner, leaving them to foot the bill.
- More often than not the utility company will follow the least path of resistance and go for the landlord rather than hunting down the culprit.
- Complications of the tenant choosing their own service providers

I am more tempted to keep all bills in my name and implement the stop loss concept mentioned earlier...is it possible to write into the AST that I can enter the property as and when I wish without having to consult the various tenants (HMO)? Reason being I would like to check and submit meter readings ad hoc and not need to inform each tenant repeatedly?

I may have to look into this on board pro in more detail...