Commercial lease break due to defect

[CuriousBN]

Just curious if anyone can help me with advice/opinions? We let a commerical property and a year-in have discovered the electrical metering is not what it seems! We were assured by the landlord and believed him that we were separately metered but have found out through sheer persistance alone that we are in fact paying for the neighboring tenant's building and now suspect we pay for the whole estate that seems not to be separately metered and for the fact that other tenants beside us do not receive a bill but are told what to pay by the landlord and have admitted that they are wired into our meter. We consider breaking the lease due to the dishonest nature of the landlord and bimonthly 500euro electrical bills that no one seems to have any interest in sorting out to our satisfaction. Does anyone know a good property law site or solicitor that can advise us? We believe the landlord knew or should have known about this latent defect and as a start up our business has been severely affected by months of runaround and having paid for extremely high electrical bills without any light ahead in the tunnel to get reimbursed or metered separately.

 

[mathepac]

Can you regularly cut off the electricity at times which cause you little or no inconvenience and cause maximum disruption to the other tenants? This might encourage them to put pressure on the landlord to get the electricity supplies regularised.

When approached by the other tenants / landlord express surprise / shock / horror that you've been hoodwinked (unwittingly of course) into subsidising the electricity costs of other enterprises and look for refunds.

 

[mercman]

I'm not sure if you could forfeit your lease on the story you have outlined. Hve you tried to withhold the rent until the matter is sorted out ? Are you otherwise content in staying if the matter was sorted out ?? The first thing you might do is have a capable electrician inspect the wiring of the entire area where you are located and request a report on his findings.

As for a solicitor in the first instance where are you located ? Remember the clock will start ticking as soon as you make contact with a legal eagle. I do not think this would be a case for a heavyweight firm but when you advise of your location I might be able to provide you (PM) with a name of a smaller firm.

 

[Sconhome]

Contact the ESB with a faulty meter report.

When the engineer calls ensure that all of the electrical items in your unit are off and disonnected. You will be able to establish that you are not drawing electricity and that there appears to be a 'leak'.

If they are separate premises there should be separate meters.

 

[CuriousBN]

We are going to think of different options like witholding rent until past bills and the current wiring problem is sorted. Forfeiting the lease is a last resort as we know we are still responsible for the entire lease term, but the reality is if we keep paying these kind of bills we won't have to forfeit anything because we'll be broke! It was leased as a separate premise with separate metering but we were just plain stupid not to confirm this. We've had an electrician look over things and he assures us the separate meter for the separate unit (blindly obvious to us) is the way to go but now it's up to the landlord and ESB to make that a reality but as usual things move at the speed of sludge in Ireland and meanwhile our financial resources continue to dwindle. We were given the name of a solicitor yesterday so this is a last, last resort because paying a solicitor to sort out an already costly problem isn't so enticing. Thanks for everyone's replies.

 

[8till8]

You need to assemble some key information;
-what does it say in your lease about electrical costs because your landlord may bounce this back to you saying that it was upto you to look after it (i.e.) its your meter so you should have been watching it.
-how will you know how much you've been over paying? You can't just estimate your share of the 500euro bill. Get yourself an Owl Electricty Monitor and start working out your own consumption ASAP.
-you mention that other tenants pay the landlord for their 'share' of electricity. Where does this money go? Can you get proof from the tenants of their payments to the landlord?
-when you say the landlord knew or should have known about the metering, you need to get proof of this and the previous question is key. i.e if he was estimating the bill to other tenants and not passing the money to you, then thats pretty good.

Mathepac suggestion of shutting off the power is brilliant, but before you do this, get an estimate of what you are owed by the landlord (from the Owl) and present him with the bill, then change your locks and shut off the power when you aren't using it. That'll concentrate the landlords mind on settling what you are owed.