In the new contract, his obligation to keep heating / sanitation in working order now "excludes the use of electric shower units which fail to function due to the lack in water pressure."
Also..tenants have to put bills in their name within a week of moving in, and prove this to the landlord or be charged £30.
Is this normal or even legal?
Haven't used that wording myself, but why would either be controversial in any way, assuming there is normally sufficient pressure for the shower to work reasonably?
Sounds about right. The water pressure thing would probably be beyond his control, and the responsibility of Thames Water. He's still responsible for the maintenance of the shower unit itself though. The bills thing is in his interests, so he doesn't get potentially lumbered with any overlap period bills. Don't know about the legality of him being able to charge you £30 though.
Word of Caution: EDF tried to stiff me by sending a bill for the period before I'd moved into property. The previous tenants had done a flit and not paid the bill. I took up a contract with British Gas when I moved in, so never had any contract with EDF. They tried, they failed. Why they didn't go to the LL, I don't know. Tossers.
as a landlord my experience of these things is that they are there to put you off (or intimidate you into doing it) I mean try enforcing that through the courts and he'd likely get nowhere but for £30 quid who is going to court..
The water pressure thing is normal as its got to be kept at a miniumum by the water board.. Although he cannot get out of his legal respobnsibility to provide washing cooking and heating facilities (basic minimum) so if you have a shpwer over the bath and the shower stops working because of pressure drop then at least you can use the bath, do you have a bath too?
Why they didn't go to the LL, I don't know. Tossers.
Agreee they are tosssers but they cannot neccesarily got to the landlord, they might not know who he is and I have been spurned by utilities when acting as landlord trying to give new tenant details some crap about data protection...
Advice - take a piccy of the meters on the day you move in, and write meter readings down and get landlord to sign/acknowledge meter readings.
Has the shower ever stoped working? If it has always worked just ignore it, he's probably having problems in another house.
The bill thing is understanable if a little pedantic.
If it's a new landlord or your just moving in, phone him up and tell him your not signing. The contract is as much about setting out your rights/responsibilities as it is his.
Charge £30 for not proving you have changed the bills over? He can sing for that mate.
p.s. go with your instincts, if the landlord sounds like a c**t then he probably is a c**t. Walk away, however nice the house is it's never worthwhile if the landlords going to make living there a misery.
p.p.s. Estate Agents make bad Landlords look good.
You can amend contracts, I just put a line through clauses like this that I don't like before signing.
The bills changeover thing is bizarre, meter readings are usually noted on inventory reports before moving in anyway.
Elf, you have a deemed contract with whoever supplies the gas and electricity at the day you move in. The change of supplier process takes 4-6 weeks so you will have a small bill from the company supplying on the day you move in.
On signup day, I usually ring the utilities while I'm in the flat/house with the new tenant. I give the final reading for the period I've had the flat/house, then hand my phone to the new tenant to give their personal and payment detail. Simple, but I manage my properties myself, I can see how it wouldn't work sitting in the office of an agent. Always do photos of meters and condition of property together with the tenant, and I have a printed space on the tenancy agreement paperwork for recording utilities and countersigning.
Elf, you have a deemed contract with whoever supplies the gas and electricity at the day you move in. The change of supplier process takes 4-6 weeks so you will have a small bill from the company supplying on the day you move in.
Well, I'd informed BG of my moving in date, a week before. No-one from EDF contacted me at all, and i wasn't given any instructions by the LL or estate agents. I was quite happy to pay EDF for the transition period, but they tried charging me for a period of time that I wasn't resident at the address. I tried sorting it out with them on the 'phone, but they demanded £150-odd for a period of just a couple of weeks. About £4 less than what the previous 6 month had come to. Obviously trying to recoup their losses from the previous tenant. That's illegal. Had they said it was £20-30, then I would have said ok and paid it. It was their insistence that I paid a huge amount for a short period of time (no way could I have used that much in 3-4 weeks) that pissed me off. Anyway, I eventually told them to get stuffed, they tried all the bailiff's bollocks, I told the bailiff's firm they had no legal 'right' (or more importantly, a Court Order) to recover the 'debt', and to get fecked, so they gave up. Just trying it on with me. Tosseurs.
Cheers folks. I've been in the place a short while, having taken over the end of a contract when I moved in. The new contract has these additions to it.
The bit about the shower is worrying because a shower engineer recently told him we have a 1.5 bar rated shower unit, but running pressure measured going into it is only 0.7 bar.
We get a useable sprinkle out of the shower, but have been told that as we get into the colder months we'll need to rely on a combination of using the 'extra power' button and turning down / up the temperature dial to ensure no freezing or scalding water comes through. 
This may be a problem, and with the new clause he seems like he's trying to wash his hands of the problem.
Well AFAIK, all installed appliances must work as intended, so if the shower doesn't work properly because it's faulty, then he is legally obliged to fix or replace it. If the mains water pressure is low then that's something that he needs to sort out with Thames Water.
max static pressure at the outside stopcock is 1bar, if 1.5bar running is required for your shower sounds like a 10.5kw unit. turning the flow down restricts the flow so increasing the backpressure so lifting the pressure switch your shower is very unstable so the chances of a scalding are very much increased if on the head normaly causes people to step back and fall over seen a few to many accidents like this.what make of shower is it (sad i know) now how will you stand if you trip out the thermal cutout as the unit has over heated and the engineer puts it down to user fault and the landlord is charged
The bit about the shower is worrying because a shower engineer recently told him we have a 1.5 bar rated shower unit, but running pressure measured going into it is only 0.7 bar.We get a useable sprinkle out of the shower, but have been told that as we get into the colder months we'll need to rely on a combination of using the 'extra power' button and turning down / up the temperature dial to ensure no freezing or scalding water comes through.
This may be a problem, and with the new clause he seems like he's trying to wash his hands of the problem.
If there is a problem and both he and you are aware of it - ask him to remove that clause from the contract or fit a shower that'll work, or preferably both. If its a new clause in the contract then its glaringly obvious why its there.
It's a Triton Opal II, which is a 10.5kw unit. "unstable..scalding..accidents" I'd rather he just put in a unit that won't put us at risk.
turning the flow down restricts the flow so increasing the backpressure so lifting the pressure switch
Please could you explain in a bit more detail what this means and what the possible problems are?
Thanks, much appreciated!
opal2 10.5 needs 1.5 bar and 11 litres of water flowing to lift pressure switch if you only have .7bar (3-5 litres flow)so pressure switch will not engage heatig elements,as you turn the temp up you are resricting the flow this then increases the pressure in the supply as less water is flowing through the unit so the unit thinks there is more pressure than there is, now on 10kw the temp rise on 3-5 litres a min is going to be over 50deg they say it is possible to get 3rd deg burns from water at 60deg + so be very careful
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