BBC’s Watchdog programme this week is set to focus on private lettings. While the precise nature of the programme is not known, sources say that researchers for the programme, due to go out at 8pm tomorrow, have been looking into letting contracts which insist that tenants use certain utility companies, with the agents picking up lucrative payments from the firms.
The sources say that among those due to be implicated by the programme are well-known agency names, including chains.
It is known that some utility firms focus on the private rented sector and have, for example, exhibited at ARLA conferences and advertised in various trade magazines. Some business models are based on rewarding agents and landlords to persuade tenants to sign up with them.
Agents or landlords trying to insist on tenants using a particular utilities firm is not a new issue: last summer, we reported claims that one in ten tenants are being illegally stopped by their landlords or agents from switching utility suppliers.
Energy regulator Ofgem says: “Landlords maintain the right to choose the energy supplier only when they are directly responsible for paying for the gas or electricity.
“Tenants should be made aware by landlords and letting agents of any tie-ins with specific suppliers and should receive appropriate details at the outset of applicable tariffs and charging details.
“If the tenant is directly responsible for paying the gas and/or electricity bills, they have the right to choose their own energy supplier, and the landlord or letting agent should not unreasonably prevent this.
“Landlords or letting agents should not sign up tenants with preferred suppliers without the tenants’ full knowledge of, or agreement to, such arrangements.”
The makers of tomorrow’s Watchdog programme make no mention of the utilities issue, but are flagging up the episode with a celebrity angle.
Actor Nigel Havers will, it says in the blurb, be revealing “how he was cheated out of money by a rogue lettings agency and shows how millions of tenants could also fall victim – despite government plans to regulate the property rentals sector”.
This is how we reported claims about utility suppliers and rental contracts last August.
https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/news_features/One-in-ten-tenants-illegally-stopped-from-switching-utilities
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