Insane student HMO heating costs?

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 14/10/2026 – 19:19
Really great reply- thanks Jo

Hi Andy,

Since you and student landlord are both in York, that licence condition above is probably sitting on your houses too, and Ian’s instinct to challenge it is right. You just don’t have to wait for renewal to do it.

Section 69 of the Housing Act 2004 lets councils vary a licence mid-term where there’s been a change of circumstances, and the Act defines that as including any discovery of new information. Two years of metered consumption against what the condition forces on you, plus the rise landing in January, is new information. Write and ask them to vary it, figures attached.

If they refuse, they must serve a decision notice giving reasons and your appeal rights, and that refusal is appealable to the First-tier Tribunal under paragraph 32 of Schedule 5. Twenty-eight days from the notice date. Worth the trouble, because the appeal is a full re-hearing rather than a review of whether the council acted reasonably, and the tribunal can vary the condition itself.

On the merits, section 67(4)(a) says councils should generally tackle hazards like excess cold through their Part 1 powers instead of licence conditions. I’d be straight with you though, 67(4)(b) gives them a comeback where equipment is involved, so I wouldn’t lead on it. Ian’s point is stronger: boost plus TRVs already delivers what York’s own wording asks for.

OJ

Reply to the comment left by Oliver Tandy at 16/10/2026 – 11:54
Thanks for your advice Oliver, really appreciated and very helpful

I was a student landlord many years ago and had bills included. The way I use to manage bills was to install an Immersion type boost timer for the central heating. There are different ones available but essentially there was an hourly one with 15/30/45/60 minute boosts and a 2 hourly timer with 30/60/90/120 minute boosts. I didn’t limit the actual usage but they had to keep going to the timer to boost it for the next few hours when it was cold. They couldn’t leave it on constantly or overnight. Hope this idea helps but it did work well. One thing that you can’t control is them using individual oil filled or fan heaters in their rooms. That cost would be extremely prohibitive for any landlord to shoulder. What I have seen nowadays are rooms with submetering to control electricity use as they pay for their room use themselves and landlord pays for communal use.

Reply to the comment left by disgruntled landlord at 17/10/2026 – 10:37
Thanks for this. Really useful info and advice.

The day I walked into one of my airbnb’s… the ‘woof’ hit me… It was like being in an oven. The guests must’ve thought they were on an episode of Baywatch… in their underwear… I thought to myself… oh hell no.

So I’ve tried various ones over the years… and I’ve found TimeOStat to be very good. They have different ones. I had their serviced accommodation one fitted. The guest can only boost for an hour at a time (15, 30, 60 minute increments). It’s never left on running, and I can boost it remotely if I have a guest coming and I want the house to be warm for them… They can’t override it to keep it going.. and the house it’s in… has the lowest energy bill of them all… and I use the same provider … I have used Hive and Tado…(still do) but TimeOStat for the serviced accommodation has been the best one… due to the 1 hour cap… The others are still good… I’d say it’s better to have something to limit, the ongoing running, then nothing. I’ve never understood running the heating ALL NIGHT, and going to bed… have a thick duvet on, and heat in the morning as you get out of bed! And then again in the early evening! Some people have no concept or care when they’re not paying for it… so these tools help …

The fan heaters worry me more than the bill. Found a 3kW one plugged into a four-way strip behind the bed in one of my terraces, and the plug was warm when I picked it up. A boost timer won’t stop that. I now say at the start no portable heaters on extension leads and look at the sockets on the yearly visit.