Moving house, housemate not paid bills.

psiksenz

Hey guys,

I just stumbled upon this forum and there's a lot of useful information here.

My problem is that I have been living in a shared house and we have been splitting the bills between 4 of us, all the others have moved out and are refusing to pay the last bill. The bills are in my name so I was wondering where I stand with this matter. I was thinking I would just pay my share of the bill and move out, the only problem is I don't want this hanging over my head as bad credit for the rest of my life.

Anyone have any ideas what i could do?

Thanks a lot.

olly300

Legally only you are liable for the bill. Therefore you must pay the companies. If you have problems paying you need to talk to the companies asap and sort out a repayment scheme.

Do you have a joint tenancy agreement? If so the only redress for getting the money off the others is to take them to court individually.

Otherwise you have to chalk it up to experience and ensure next time that you are not the only name on the bills.

Premier_2

Having more than one name on the bill will not necessarily protect an individual. All named account holders are usually treated as being jointly & severally liable, meaning the energy company can opt to chase ony one for the full amount. Usually they will chase all, but if the other 3 have disappeared guess who they'll get to pay the bill.

You wouldn't necessarily need a joint tenancy agreement to pursue your own claim against the other 3 HMs. Perhaps you had a written agreement between you on how the bills would be paid, or even past practice would possibly be a good enough reason to win a case. It all depends on what their reason for believing they should not pay is.