From
1st October 2011 landlords must give water companies their tenant’s
contact details, as a result of
changes made by the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
This is to prevent tenants leaving properties without providing water companies with appropriate forwarding addresses and leaving unpaid bills. Should the landlord fail to comply with this provision, he will become jointly and severally liable for the invoices for water usage at the rented property.
These changes place a significant new obligation on landlords. They also give the water companies a substantial advantage over other utility providers who do not have the benefit of this kind of statutory protection.
This is to prevent tenants leaving properties without providing water companies with appropriate forwarding addresses and leaving unpaid bills. Should the landlord fail to comply with this provision, he will become jointly and severally liable for the invoices for water usage at the rented property.
These changes place a significant new obligation on landlords. They also give the water companies a substantial advantage over other utility providers who do not have the benefit of this kind of statutory protection.
What is Belvoir doing regarding this issue?
- The actual impact of this at a local level should be quite small. At both Northampton and Rugby we have requested a forwarding address from tenants for some years, and in over 90% of cases they comply. As such if your tenant hasn't paid the water bill, we can advise the provider of a forwarding address, and you as landlord won't become liable.
- Going forward we have changed our tenancy agreement making it a contractual requirement for a tenant to provide a forwarding address. This will be linked to the return of their deposit, and is the solution suggested by ARLA and other professional bodies, so will be adopted by most agents. How it will stand up legally remains to be seen - there are strict rules regarding the time scales in which a tenants deposit must be returned, and whether the courts will allow landlords / agent to insert clauses that effectively amend those rules will be an interesting one to follow.
- This leaves a minority of tenants who already have a tenancy agreement that does not contain a clause insisting on a forwarding address. We will be contacting these individually and requesting a mutually agreed variance to their terms whereby they are obliged to supply a forwarding address when they leave. As this is a fairly minor point, we expect the vast majority of tenants to agree to this without any problem. If we do get a couple of 'tricky customers' we will contact their landlords directly to ascertain how they wish us to proceed.
I'm more than happy to answer any queries landlords may have about this issue - please email richard.baker@belvoirlettings.com as required.
