Cleaner has cost me over £1,000 on energy bill?

Cleaner has cost me over £1,000 on energy bill?

9:34 AM, 31st January 2023, About A year ago 18

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Hello, I wanted to share a bad experience I had this week whereby a cleaner has cost me over £1,000 in electricity. I share this as a warning to others but also I would like to know if anybody else has ever encountered a similar situation and if they managed to resolve it or hear from anybody who may have advice on resolving it.

I own a rental in the North West which is fully managed by a letting agent. The property has been rented out to the same tenants for 5 years and there has been very little for the managing agent to do as there were hardly any maintenance issues and the tenant reliably paid their rent.

When the tenant vacated, the property had very heavy wear and tear and I have decided to redecorate and replace some flooring and take the opportunity to do some fairly major work to the bathrooms which are a bit dated.

The tenants moved out early December and I managed to get up to the property for 5 days and start some decorating and begin to make plans for the bathrooms and flooring. While I was there the managing agent who are sorting out the deposit through the deposit scheme advised me that they would be sending a cleaner to clean the property as this could be claimed from the deposit. They did not however stipulate what date the cleaner would be attending.

After 5 days I had to return home due to other commitments and Christmas and managed to make it back to the property in late January to continue with the work. On arriving at the property I unlocked and opened the door and was immediately hit by a wall of heat like a furnace. On inspection there were three heaters that had been left on at full power in the property.

The only people with keys to the property are myself and the managing agent. I now have an electricity bill for over a thousand pounds for a vacant property! I phoned the managing agent straight away and explained that the cleaner must have left on the heating (she had left the keys in the property and pulled the door closed on the latch). The agent said they would look into it and get back to me.

At first they seemed sympathetic but then changed their attitude and said that it wasn’t her, as cleaning staff are told they must never turn on any heating, even though she had the only other key to the place apart from me.

I would like to take this further but the problem I have is that the managing agent is claiming (after bringing the issue to their attention) that the cleaner cleaned the flat on the bank holiday 2nd January but my electricity bill goes up from late December so based on their dates the electricity spike would have begun before the cleaner was at the property.

I believe they are lying about the date the cleaner came to property to avoid liability but I have no way of proving it. So it looks like I will be landed with paying this bill due to the cleaner’s negligence and the agent’s complicity.

If anyone has any related experiences or thoughts they would like to share they would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Ian


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Comments

Chris H

21:54 PM, 31st January 2023, About A year ago

Lesson learnd sadly, you should have asked the agents what date the cleaner attended without the knowledge of why.
I think if I was you I would at the very least get new agents, as using the facts provided it is clear they are dishonest and avoiding their liability.
Are there any ring door bells or cctv that night have caught her.
I would demand proof of the date the cleaner attended, time card, invoice etc, get them to put in writting, then I would ask to speak to the cleaner. 1k is not a small amount of money

John Taylor

9:27 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

Last December I too had cleaners at a could property. Luckily I attended about an hour after they had arrived. The heating had been put on full blast - the property was unbearable hot. The cleaners themselves were sweating but did not think to switch off or turn the thermostat down!

The cleaners took pictures of before and after cleaning of various items eg the fridge, washing machine soap dispenser. They may have taken others but these were the ones I saw them take.

Hopefully the cleaners at your property also took pictures to safeguard themselves against any mishap that may have happened after their visit or complaint of their work.

As previous posts if you have smart meter hope they come into use in this instance.

Another tip is to take pictures of meter readings of entering into a property and leaving - this way a tally can be kept of your usage v that of contractors in the property in your absence.

Maybe time to put in a clause into contracts that contractors are responsible for utility usage.... That's a discussion for another day.

Good luck.

Chris @ Possession Friend

11:09 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

Letter before action to Letting Agent, then a civil claim.

Nick Price

13:15 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

I agree. Write a letter and state that you want a resolution or will take it to the small claims court. Suggest that you split the bill with the agent and that the agent deduct this from the future charges. If you don't have an agreement to this effect in 2 weeks, terminate their services and Issue a small claims court. Also you want a list of all dates of inspection to hold their feet to the fire.

Kathryn Innes

18:07 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

I would also think about whether you want to keep this agent. If a tenant has lived in the property for five years AND you are doing major renovations on the flat before you re-let, it seems very unfair to deduct a cleaning fee (£70?!) from a tenant's deposit. Really money grabbing and I would have refused to let them do that. It's just not how you treat people who have been good tenants imo.

Deva Dawson

20:25 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

If they took before and after pictures of their cleaning then the exif data on the images will say the date that they were taken on.

Chris H

10:22 AM, 2nd February 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Deva Dawson at 01/02/2023 - 20:25
Yes, so if I was a sneaky agent, I would provide a report on pdf or word and then no data.

DAMIEN RAFFERTY

12:42 PM, 4th February 2023, About A year ago

The buck stops with you at the end of the day.
It's your property and you are running a business.
Would you have been happy if a pipe had burst and flooding had caused £xxxxxx of damage.
The water should have been turned off and water drained down, heating turned off or left on low.
You can offset the costs, gas, electric, water and council tax against income.
Maybe time for a major refurbishment and energy saving measures.

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