Npower, student accomadation, recieving a bill after end of contract with tennants.

Britton

(edit: title should say landlords!)

Hi, this is my first post on here after browsing the forums for quite a while. Anyway i'll make a start on the scenario!

It involves my Girlfriend and her student accommodation and an electric bill.

She lived in a house with 8 others in her third year, problem free. They all finished and as stipulated in their contracts, only until utility's and what not were settled would they get their deposits back. This went smoothly, minus the odd brackage here and there etc. Until a few months later an electricity bill appeared from npower, This came in one of the lads names who had lived in the house, since then it has been split and my girlfriend recieved a bill for £174 from Npower for the above property.


My question is; If the contract as ended between the tennants and the landlord, should it be her who is accountable for this debt? Speaking to her she says they didn't have a bill all year, and mentioned that the previous tennants had said something about never having an ellectricity bill.

And also; Are they right to have her details in the first place? the bill also says that it is a business account yet with her name on it who clearly owns no business.

At the moment it looks like she is going to get bullied into paying it, as since then she has recieved a letter from NPower saying that she owes £340 from a supposed "debt collection agency"

She is trying to save up to pay towards her LPC which costs nearly 14k just for the course nevermind living etc! ), and driving lessons, so you can imagine, she would prefer not to have to pay. She only recently started working in a call centre and is waiting on CAB to start volunteer training so may have to go part-time for that as it will be vital experience for her Law wise.

The only action she has done is to phone up to say that the debt is not right and told them to come back to her when they have sorted what they are trying to make her pay for.

I have told her to do it all in writing as they will say anything on the phone and will be a lot more by the book if its writen down.

Any help and/or advice would be greatly apprieciated.

Fire_Fox

The issue isn't really what your girlfriend's personal circumstances are, it's whether or not she used the electricity she is being charged for and whether she knowingly did not pay it previously.

She freely admits not paying an electricity bill all year, and was named on the tenancy agreement. Therefore morally she owes one eighth of the entire bill, legally she is jointly and severally liable for the entire bill. All final bills are sent after a tenancy has ended, termination of contract is not valid reason not to pay for energy used whilst the tenancy was still in place.

I suggest she pays her share ASAP and provides the NPower with contact details for as many of her ex-housemates as possible, to avoid being chased for the remaining money at a later date.

Britton

Cheers for your help.
Found it odd that the landlord would settle the contract that said that it wouldn't be settled until the utilities were sorted, as though they weren't expecting it to arrive almost.

Fire_Fox

That last post made no sense at all.

Premier_2

Fire_Fox wrote: »

That last post made no sense at all.

Allow me to translate into English

Britton wrote:

Cheers for your help.
Found it odd that the landlord would settle the contract [i.e. tenancy agreement]. [strike]that[/strike] [The Landlord] said that it[the Tenancy Agreement] wouldn't be settled until the utilities were sorted, [almost] as though they [the Landlord] weren't expecting it [the final utility bills] to arrive [strike]almost[/strike].

A couple of issues here.

The LL is wary of his tenants leaving unpaid utility bills. However what the LL doesn't realise is that he cannot withhold a deposit because of unpaid utility bills by his tenants. If, as was the case, the utility bills are put in the tenants names, the LL is not responsble whatsoever for the bills accrued during a tenancy period. At the end of the tenancy, and assuming no tenants move in immediately after your gf, the utility accounts would revert back to the LL and start afresh. Any amounts accrued by the tenants remain on the tenants account.

That is why, as Fire Fox correctly says, if the bill received by your g/f relates to what she (or her housemates) consumed, she is liable for that debt.

What I don't fully follow is some of your explanation.
You say there was a bill addressed to one lad, but that is now split and your g/f has a bill for £174 from nPower.

If your g/f is the only person named on that bill, she is totally liable for it.

If your g/f is jointly named on that bill one with one or more other persons, she is jointly & severally liable for it. That means she can be pursued for the full amount. If this is the case, she could try paying only her share, but the supplier will probably pursue her for the total anyway as they often chase the one who has paid a little to pay the rest. (They often work on the principle if they could get some blood out of the stone, there's probably more available if they sqeeze hard enough; no blood and they can squeeze all they like, they may never get any)

You then refer to a bill of £340
Is that the £174 with collection/late payment charges added?
If so, unfortunately, she probably owes that in the same way as described above.

Lastly, to clarify whether the bill relates to what she consumed or was consumed after the tenancy ended, refer to the meter readings taken when she left the property and were hopefully recorded on the agreed outgoing inventory.


Edit: Missed the bit about it being a business tariff
It doesn't matter that your g/f is not operating a business. The business tariff is simply the tariff the supplier is billing on. Was it university owned accomodation? If so, then that might explain why it's a business account they set up. University accomodation is not the same as traditional residential accomodation.
The billing as a business account does not absolve her liability to pay; it simply means its supplied under different regulations to a non business account, details of which are not important here.

Britton

The bill that went to the lad originally has been divided and sent out to each person. So each got a bill for £174. What seems to have happened is that they have sent my girlfriend the remaining bill, however one of the payments has bounced so the bill is now showing 2 people as unpaid, £350 now owed.

She got a confusing letter yesterday which hopefully confirms it is just £174 they are wanting off of her, as said it looks like a payment has bounced.

PS; cheers for the translation Premier.

Thank you both for your clarification.