- Original Poster
- #1
Hi guys have a few questions about the tenancy of my commercial properly
basically yes i was stupid,and new to all this when i took the lease out a few months back (august)
its a 12 month licence to occupy agreement, any repairs etc to be carried out by him, and i have to contribute to buildings insurance in 3 installments,billed every 1/4 he did not bill me in November,for the first installment,i did agree it was fine to just add it onto when the next one would be due (end feb) and he has just send me a bill now for just under £800! and this is supposed to just be a "contribution" no chance im being well over charged for that i was expecting it to be around £100 a 1/4 contribution seens as i had quotes myself for £300 just browsing to get an idea what i would be expected to "contribute" for it as he always said he didnt know off the top of his head!
now anyway we pretty much only use this unit for storage only! maybe down there once/twice a week
but the utilities bills are always coming out at £60-80 a month!!
upon querying this and getting a break down! our actual useage cost is under £20! and has never been more than £35 the rest is made up from his own extra charges as we are invoiced by his management company not the suppliers
(unfortunately yes it is in my contract he will invoice us directly for utilities)
but there is no breakdown of his charges in the actual agreement witch are as follows
£30 standing charge in total for the meters (give or take)
10% admin charge for reading the meters! (witch only he can do im not even sure where our meters are,im guessing in a substation that's in the owners personal compound he uses to keep plant equipment, so either way no one other than him has access to keep an eye on/check the meters anyway!)
he always every 1/4 charages us £30 for fire alarm and emergancy light testing! witch i have never seen/heard done once! other than when we first got the unit and it had been empty for around 12/18 months prior he had an electrition in to re commission it all and test!
im not there often as said so i have asked the other tenants and they also realized the same as me! the alarms are never known to be tested on/at any spacific date/time yet we have all being billed for it every 1/4
we know the system does work as the joiner next door often sets the alarms off when he emptys his dust extractor so is this the landlords way of "testing" the system
and another thing
The main door to my unit is an old heavy wooden sliding thing! he promised he would get someone to come out and look at replacing the door with a shutter as i know from past experience they are a pain to open, in winter when they swell , i made it clear i need drive in access to load the van when we do go down,as said its just storage mainly we have another we use for the running of the business if you like
i have already decided i will 100% be out of here as soon as i can its just this latest bill has really really pissed me off to the point i feel like going down right now and clearing the place out! and walking away,rather than doing what i should and gritting my teeth till august
i have also done some checks on my landlord and can see hes had around 5 company's of his "dissolved" in the last 12-18 months and i know he lost a lot of other units empty so im guessing he is just creaming what we can out of us tenants he does have! instead of trying to keep us!
and also as iv gotten to know more people from around the area and mention his company/name it would appear he is about as popular as Gary glitter in a nursery
basically yes i was stupid,and new to all this when i took the lease out a few months back (august)
its a 12 month licence to occupy agreement, any repairs etc to be carried out by him, and i have to contribute to buildings insurance in 3 installments,billed every 1/4 he did not bill me in November,for the first installment,i did agree it was fine to just add it onto when the next one would be due (end feb) and he has just send me a bill now for just under £800! and this is supposed to just be a "contribution" no chance im being well over charged for that i was expecting it to be around £100 a 1/4 contribution seens as i had quotes myself for £300 just browsing to get an idea what i would be expected to "contribute" for it as he always said he didnt know off the top of his head!
now anyway we pretty much only use this unit for storage only! maybe down there once/twice a week
but the utilities bills are always coming out at £60-80 a month!!
upon querying this and getting a break down! our actual useage cost is under £20! and has never been more than £35 the rest is made up from his own extra charges as we are invoiced by his management company not the suppliers
(unfortunately yes it is in my contract he will invoice us directly for utilities)
but there is no breakdown of his charges in the actual agreement witch are as follows
£30 standing charge in total for the meters (give or take)
10% admin charge for reading the meters! (witch only he can do im not even sure where our meters are,im guessing in a substation that's in the owners personal compound he uses to keep plant equipment, so either way no one other than him has access to keep an eye on/check the meters anyway!)
he always every 1/4 charages us £30 for fire alarm and emergancy light testing! witch i have never seen/heard done once! other than when we first got the unit and it had been empty for around 12/18 months prior he had an electrition in to re commission it all and test!
im not there often as said so i have asked the other tenants and they also realized the same as me! the alarms are never known to be tested on/at any spacific date/time yet we have all being billed for it every 1/4
we know the system does work as the joiner next door often sets the alarms off when he emptys his dust extractor so is this the landlords way of "testing" the system
and another thing
The main door to my unit is an old heavy wooden sliding thing! he promised he would get someone to come out and look at replacing the door with a shutter as i know from past experience they are a pain to open, in winter when they swell , i made it clear i need drive in access to load the van when we do go down,as said its just storage mainly we have another we use for the running of the business if you like
i have already decided i will 100% be out of here as soon as i can its just this latest bill has really really pissed me off to the point i feel like going down right now and clearing the place out! and walking away,rather than doing what i should and gritting my teeth till august
i have also done some checks on my landlord and can see hes had around 5 company's of his "dissolved" in the last 12-18 months and i know he lost a lot of other units empty so im guessing he is just creaming what we can out of us tenants he does have! instead of trying to keep us!
and also as iv gotten to know more people from around the area and mention his company/name it would appear he is about as popular as Gary glitter in a nursery
