Some of you may remember the oil tank/pipe leak drama...
To recap:
1. We had the oil tank filled.
2. The next day I noticed a dripping on the valve, and turned all the knobs I could find to get it to stop.
3. I called our rental management people.
4. 4 or 5 days later they sent out someone to fix it
5. The heater wouldn't restart.
6. They sent someone to bleed the line and re-light the heater. (3 days later)
7. They sent me a bill for the line bleeder guy, because it was my fault the oil got turned off and thus necessitated the guy coming out.
What else was I supposed to do? If I hadn't turned off the oil flow, instead of a drip (which soaked the ground as it was) the whole tank would have leaked out in the time it took them to get someone out here! I guess that would have been my problem, too, since I'm actually paying for the oil in spite of them saying they would pay it.
See, the asking price for the house was 1000GBP per month. We are allowed up to 1200, but we only get up to the price (we can't get a cheap place and pocket the difference), so we offered 1200 with heating oil included. They wouldn't write that part into the contract, claiming we wouldn't get our utility allowance if they knew about it, but we do have it in writing on another paper. Only, last time we filled up the tank, they sent us this lovely letter with the check saying how we paid in 200GBP per month, and we had spent 40 more than we'd paid in, so we couldn't charge them for more until we'd caught up a bit. Also they included in the tally some oil they'd put in before we moved out here. So basically, instead of them covering the cost of oil, they are just holding a set amount towards the cost. We decided to let that go since it would probably work out anyway, seeing as we were over only 40GBP in the winter, and we'll use a lot less in the summer. But this!
I guess I'll either let this go, too, or else try to find the number for the base housing office and find out what I ought to do.
Pity the company works in this underhanded way, as we really like the house. Mr Elvin seemed so nice, too, when we were out looking for places. I should have gone with my first reaction when they didn't have the keys for the property they'd made an appointment to show Bob, and left him standing on the curb for an hour not knowing if they would show up or not. When they offered to make another appointment, I said, "Why would I? How can you manage a lease if you can't even show a house?" I was right.
Anyway, it's not like the price would break us, it's just WRONG.
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