Do utilities bills affect credit rating?

monsteruk

I'm one of four housemates disagreeing over a gas/electric bill.

It's addressed to three of us (ie Mr Monsteruk & Mr Smith & Mr Jones, 1 My Street) - will it affect my personal credit rating if we miss the deadline while arguing over who uses the tumble dryer more?

Cardew

If the bill is not paid, and you are long term tenants/owners the normal course of action is to install prepay meters - with a court order if necessary - and set it to recover the debt.

If you move(e.g. students), the utility companies tend to hand debts over pretty quickly to debt collection agencies and that can affect your credit rating.

It depends on how the account is set up as to who becomes the 'fall guy'. It can be one person or all named on the account.

monsteruk

Fair enough.

When is the bill actually due? It arrived Friday, dated a week before (a nasty trick I thought was previously limited to debt collectors), with the statement of "Please pay <amount> now." This is a first bill, not a reminder or anything.

WhistleBlower

It will affect your credit rating if:

It's a live account and gets taken to court. (I think it ends up as a CCJ, not sure though)

It's a closed account and your debt is sold on.

monsteruk

OK. Just to point out, I'm not a deadbeat who has no intention of paying, we're just disagreeing on how to split it at the moment :P

Any guidance on when British Gas actually consider it overdue would be useful.

Premier_2

The debt legally becomes overdue 28 days after it was billed.

To clarify, it is legally due now, but will be considered overdue 28 days from date of bill.

Why not pay the bill now and sort out any differences with your fellow housemates in your own time?

monsteruk

I guess that explains why they backdate the bill then...

Because they'll never get sorted out that way... if there's no pressure, they have no incentive to discuss it, let alone cooperate. Anyway, that gives me 3 weeks - I think we should be able to sort something out by then :P

I guess sharing a house with difficult housemates is part of growing up! I've given up on having a place in an even remotely orderly fashion until I can afford my own place

Incisor

I am assuming that your bill is correct according to the meter. There is absolutely no reason to involve the electricity supplier in a domestic dispute about who used what. You are all going the right way to mess up your credit records. You should between you pay the bill and then argue over how to pay it between yourselves. You all need to understand that using not paying the electricity bill as a lever against each other is a foolish way of solving a domestic.