Moving out of rented apartment - utilities closing date issue

zepman

Hi,

Apologies for the very long post. We recently moved out of a rented apartment (owned by a well-known company) in Dublin and are facing an issue regarding the closing date for utility bills.

We had a 2-month notice period requirement since we were there for a little longer than 2 years. We gave the notice back in November 2020, with a move-out date of January 18th 2021. We expected to be actually gone long before but were liable until that date.

But we then had a relative of ours interested in renting the apartment if we moved out at an earlier date. So, we referred him to the landlords, and told them that we would be able to move out on December 31st 2020. Because of the holidays, we were told that the last day that the letting agent could meet us to collect the keys would be December 29th 2020, or we could leave the keys in the post box as we left. We agreed to the former since we wanted a final inspection to take place in our presence.

However, once it was announced that inter-county travel would be banned with effect from the December 27th 2020, we decided to pack up and leave on the 26th (our new place is in Wicklow county). We informed the letting agent and they agreed for us to just leave the keys in the post box. So, we were gone on the evening of December 26th 2020.

We received final electricity/gas meter readings from the agent on December 29th 2020, and I used those to close our accounts (with Energia) with that closing date. We received the closing bills earlier this week which we paid immediately, thereby closing the accounts. We then sent the closing bills, payment receipts etc to the landlord as part of a deposit return request.

We are now being told by the letting agent that we would be liable for rent and utilities until January 3rd 2021 because the new tenant only moved in on the 4th. This wasn't communicated to us by the agent before.
But, fine, we're okay with that - in fact, the pro-rated rent for the 3 days was automatically taken from my account via direct debit earlier this week. However, we are also being asked to change the closing date on the final utilities bills to January 3rd 2021. We asked the agent to give us meter readings from that date, but they just told to use the same readings as before but with a closing date of January 3rd.

So, we contacted Energia about this but were told that it is not possible to change the closing date since the accounts are already closed. The customer service rep also said that it would not make a difference anyway (apart from very small standing charges) since the meter readings are not changing and there was no one in the property until January 4th 2021. The rep also suggested that if the new tenant registers with the same meter readings with a start date of January 4th 2021, then that might solve the problem.

I relayed this back to the letting agent, asking them how we should proceed now.
But as I wait for their reply, I am trying to think of ways to sort this out. A couple of options I can think of -

1) Ask the landlord to deduct whatever we owe for those 5 days from our security deposit (standing charges which sum up to a couple of quid perhaps ). But I am not sure how that would be worked out as I don't know what happens to utilities once a tenant moves out and closes their accounts. Do they get transferred to the landlord automatically, and does the landlord receive a bill for the period between the closing date and a new tenant's start date (in our case, December 30th 2020 to January 3rd 2021)?

2) Ask the new tenant (our relative) to sign up for utilities with a start date of December 30th 2020 instead of January 4th 2021 and pay him whatever we owe for the 5 extra days. This, of course, is dependent on the landlord being okay with it.

Appreciate any suggestions, comments etc.

accensi0n

They clearly agreed through their action of sending you the meter readings, of a Dec 29th leaving date.
Nothing after that is to do with you.
Tell them you're opening a PRTB case.

whomitconcerns

zepman wrote: »

Hi,

Apologies for the very long post. We recently moved out of a rented apartment (owned by a well-known company) in Dublin and are facing an issue regarding the closing date for utility bills.

We had a 2-month notice period requirement since we were there for a little longer than 2 years. We gave the notice back in November 2020, with a move-out date of January 18th 2021. We expected to be actually gone long before but were liable until that date.

But we then had a relative of ours interested in renting the apartment if we moved out at an earlier date. So, we referred him to the landlords, and told them that we would be able to move out on December 31st 2020. Because of the holidays, we were told that the last day that the letting agent could meet us to collect the keys would be December 29th 2020, or we could leave the keys in the post box as we left. We agreed to the former since we wanted a final inspection to take place in our presence.

However, once it was announced that inter-county travel would be banned with effect from the December 27th 2020, we decided to pack up and leave on the 26th (our new place is in Wicklow county). We informed the letting agent and they agreed for us to just leave the keys in the post box. So, we were gone on the evening of December 26th 2020.

We received final electricity/gas meter readings from the agent on December 29th 2020, and I used those to close our accounts (with Energia) with that closing date. We received the closing bills earlier this week which we paid immediately, thereby closing the accounts. We then sent the closing bills, payment receipts etc to the landlord as part of a deposit return request.

We are now being told by the letting agent that we would be liable for rent and utilities until January 3rd 2021 because the new tenant only moved in on the 4th. This wasn't communicated to us by the agent before.
But, fine, we're okay with that - in fact, the pro-rated rent for the 3 days was automatically taken from my account via direct debit earlier this week. However, we are also being asked to change the closing date on the final utilities bills to January 3rd 2021. We asked the agent to give us meter readings from that date, but they just told to use the same readings as before but with a closing date of January 3rd.

So, we contacted Energia about this but were told that it is not possible to change the closing date since the accounts are already closed. The customer service rep also said that it would not make a difference anyway (apart from very small standing charges) since the meter readings are not changing and there was no one in the property until January 4th 2021. The rep also suggested that if the new tenant registers with the same meter readings with a start date of January 4th 2021, then that might solve the problem.

I relayed this back to the letting agent, asking them how we should proceed now.
But as I wait for their reply, I am trying to think of ways to sort this out. A couple of options I can think of -

1) Ask the landlord to deduct whatever we owe for those 5 days from our security deposit (standing charges which sum up to a couple of quid perhaps ). But I am not sure how that would be worked out as I don't know what happens to utilities once a tenant moves out and closes their accounts. Do they get transferred to the landlord automatically, and does the landlord receive a bill for the period between the closing date and a new tenant's start date (in our case, December 30th 2020 to January 3rd 2021)?

2) Ask the new tenant (our relative) to sign up for utilities with a start date of December 30th 2020 instead of January 4th 2021 and pay him whatever we owe for the 5 extra days. This, of course, is dependent on the landlord being okay with it.

Appreciate any suggestions, comments etc.

The utilities between tenants moving in and out is not your problem. You don’t pay anything for that.

Doop

As above, really the agents problem. Forget about it, and dont offer for them to deduct anything. If they want to make deductions they need to present you with the relevant bill.