Electricity Bill query

nick468

Hi there,
I hope someone can give me some advice on a situation that has developed with my landlord.
Chiefly, the issue is to do with heat. For ten days in November, the central heating was off due to a ‘fault‘..
So in a desperate bid to warm my room, I used a convector heater for several hours in this period. The central heating is back, but now the cold snap has set in, I am using my convector heater AND an electric blanket to try keep warm outside the hours the heating is on.
When I moved two years ago, the agreement was all my bills were inclusive in my rent. This included six hours of heat an evening, and two in the morning. Sadly this was not in writing. Horrendous as it now sounds in retrospect, I did not sign a contract nor a lease.
I am concerned that when my landlord gets his next ESB bill he is going to attempt to charge me extra for the days in November when the only source of heat I had was the convector heater.
Is he permitted to do this? He has already charged us €15 extra a month for six extra hours of central heating per weekend, so I know he is happy to hand out punitive charges.
But I don’t think an electrical charge is fair because there was no other source of heat for the period in November, despite our rent presumably including this. In my two years of living in the house, I have never been charged electricity directly, despite operating a CD player, television, laptop computer, and other paraphernalia.

There are a number of other issues I am not happy with, but this is my main fear.
Thanks,
Spencer

djimi

Have you spoken to your landlord about this?

nick468

Unfortunately not, I was advised not to do so at the time by other housemates (presumably in the hope he wouldn't notice).

Nick

Victor

If the landlord provides all heating and electricity as part for the rent, he can't go charging you extra.

You shouldn't be paying extra for heat at the weekend.

Leave sleeping dogs lie.