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I think my landlord is a wee bit dodgy...
I had to pay an outstanding internet bill of almost 400 Euros yesterday to get my internet turned back on. I was in a bit of a rush to resume service since I'm working from home and need the internet to do research, skype with a client, etc., so after figuring out on the phone what had gone wrong, I agreed to pay the bill immediately with a credit card just to have service restored within 24 hours.
Now DH is pi$$ed to find out our service only charges about 45 euros/month, so the landlord must not have paid the internet for months and months. And guess what? He's out of town and unreachable.
SIGH! I'm hoping we can figure this all out when he returns and that it was just a big misunderstanding (perhaps it's the previous tenant's dodginess?).
Re: I think my landlord is a wee bit dodgy...
400??!?!
If it really is because of back charges from your landlord, I would try to get a bill detailing that from the IP and, if the landlord doesn't reimburse you for it, take it out of the last month's rent. There is no reason you should have to pay his old internet bills, and I can't imagine there's a legal way for him to make you.
No kidding. I am hopeful we can get our money back somehow because, as you point out, we can just take it out of the last month's rent. I just don't look forward to all the back & forth with the landlord and the internet company. (I am a little burnt out on bureaucracy and it's only week 3 in France!) The most frustrating thing about this is DH's insistence that I should not have agreed to pay the bill without squaring things away with the landlord first. Easy for him to say when he has easy access to internet and a telephone at his office job every day...
Hindsight is wonderful, isn't it!
My dh had issues with a refuse company when he was renting (before we moved in together) and what they did to prove that the charges weren't theirs was to show the company a copy of their lease showing when they moved in. The company accepted this and went after the previous residents for the outstanding balance.
What I'm wondering is how come the charges were on your account? Did you not set up a new account in your own name? Surely this would have meant that you started at zero?
Not suggesting that your French isn't good but perhaps the ?400 was a security deposit on your new account seeing as you don't have a credit history in the country? We set up a gas bill in our names when we moved to the house and the company insisted that we pay a ?200 deposit even though we were going on direct debit and have had another account at our previous address...
Either way, I can understand why you paid so as to get internet/phone connection back! Hope it gets sorted out soon...
I agree that either it was a deposit, or that you shouldn't have paid it. However, what's done is done and I would start by sending an email to your IP with an attached scan of your lease agreement clearly showing the date that you moved into the property and request written confirmation of what the 400E charge was for and who should be responsible for it. CC it to your landlord so that everything is clear.
When we moved into our most recent flat we received bills, etc for the previous tenants and fixed everything with a copy of our lease. Easy peasy.
Chronically hilarious - you'll split your stitches!
I wrote a book! Bucket list CHECK!
http://notesfortheirtherapist.blogspot.co.uk
Ehhh, there is nothing technically in our name because DH's company is the official renter on the lease of the apartment (since we didn't have a credit history, bank account, etc. when we had to sign the lease back in November). The internet is still in the landlord's name. All I can prove is that x number of back payments were satisfied yesterday with MY credit card number and that we didn't become the tenants here until Jan. 9th. I hope that's enough...
I hope you can get it sorted out with your landlord. Hopefully he will be honest about the back payments.
Can I ask which service you are with? 45Euro/month seems high, does that include canalplus or canalsat?
Orange. I'm not sure what it includes since we've only watched kid channels on TV, but it does include some kind of international-channel cable. I have literally zero paperwork detailing our package, shame on me.
Hummm, on their site they have a package for 29/month which includes internet, telephone and tv - http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/livebox-star.aspx
Maybe you can have them change your rate?
The 29/month is the general price for most of the operators.
Things I learn as I go along! Our rate in the U.S. is close to $90/month, so 45 Euros seemed reasonable.
In any event, I am in a holding pattern until the landlord returns from a trip next week.