Hi, Try to keep it as short as I can; have been renting my flat for 5 years; electricity cost used to be included in our rent as there was one meter for two flats (the other flat has no gas so I guess using a lot more electricity than we do, hot water heating etc, ours heated by gas). Then suddenly, about a year ago received a bill from N Power; rang the agency to find out why, was told that from then on we were responsible for elect bill. It happened right in the middle of the tenancy agreement. The agent did not deduct the electr money from our rent because it was not written in the contract, verbally agreed with the landlord. No problem, I thought. First bill we received was for £300, clearly something was wrong; so we switched all the appliances off and the meter was still running. Called the supplier to sort out the matter, it turned out that the meter allocated to our names is actually for the second floor flat. Talked to the tenants who live upstairs and found out that their bill was still paid with the rent, why only changes to mine then? I rang the agent and wrote an email explaining what had happened, they never got back to me. Now we received a bill for £2500, lovely. Just want to add that the agents also gave my name to EON, who are now chasing me for over £300 (funny thing is that they bill covers a few months in 2009 only; when asked EON who had paid the bills before that they said that previous tenants; it seems that 'ghost tenants' paid for the year 2005, '06, '07, '08; definitely it wasn't me!! B.G. has been our gas supplier since 2005; which isn't even in my name but my flatmate's. I have never been Eon's customer. What do I do now? I've had enough of trying to explain it to EON, I called them a few times also send letters. Thought it was sorted out, no hear from them for 6 months, but it started all over again. To be honest I am not happy with the fact that the agent gave our details to the utility company without informing us about it and doing it all wrong, getting us into all that trouble. Do they have the right to do that? Thanks for help.

Landlords must protect their tenants' deposits using a TDP scheme if they have let the property on an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) which started after 6 April 2007. Does the scheme apply if I paid my deposit in 2004? Since then renewed the contract every year. Am I right to think that the my current tenancy started in Jan 2010, this is when I signed the latest one? Therefore my deposit should be protected, is this correct? I have never received a receipt or any other info regarding my deposit. Just curious, thanks.

Hi. Need help with writing a letter to my landlord, things have gone too far now. Briefly, I am late with my rent by 2 weeks, it is a periodic tenancy; I have lived in the property for over 5 years now, it is not first time that I am late but as far as I am concerned it was not a problem as never received a single letter about it. My landlord begun to threaten me to change the locks, to 'blacklist' me, as well as making sure that I will not be able to rent again from local letting agents by giving bad ref; it all started about a month ago. At first I tried to explain to him that for the past 3 yrs I was a full time student I often had financial difficulties and that he should now by now that I am not going to run away (I have a full time job now, but have not been paid yet), he would not take a notice. He sends me lots of text messages giving me the dates stating when to leave(3 different so far), he also says I am staying in the flat illegally as there was no new contract signed, I am know that he is not right. Now he says he does not want money, he wants us out by Fri. He also said,( without seeing the flat!) that he will keep half of my deposit to cover the expenses for cleaning carpets which are surly as old as I am(I have a dog, L agreed to it about 4yrs ago, but changed his mind recently, ordering me to get rid of the poor animal). I am assuming he thinks that I have not got a clue about the legal proceedings etc Websites like this one help a lot! What do I tell him in the letter; want to keep it short, polite but clear of what I am asking for. Should I report it to any authorities, just do not want to find myself homeless after getting back from work on Fri evening. Never been stressed that much, really want it to stop.