being chased for unpaid bill...please help!

tbagfish

Well the irony is that I would have 600 for my share if he hadn't stolen the rent money from me. But that's neither here nor there now; if they do let me pay small amounts being on JSA then that would be great. Well not great obviously, but the lesser of two evils.

But yes fortunately I do have enough to cover that; however the other tenant who I am in contact with won't have that amount of money as he also wasn't expecting to have to pay the vanishing tenant's bill. And like you guys have said the energy supplier won't be interested in how much he has, only what I have.

This means I will probably eventually end up paying £1800 minus whatever contribution I can get from the reasonable flatmate, when I've already had money taken from me It's going to be really tough to make ends meet having lost my job but I'll mentionm to them my JSA and see how small I can make my repayments

adprob

tbagfish

write to the supplier explaining the situation, detailing exactly what your income and expenditure is and what you feel you could afford to pay. send this in by recorded delivery and ask them if this will be acceptable.

i know this is a lot of hassle and some people on this might say you shouldnt have to justify your income but suppliers probably get hundreds of people claiming hardship when they can afford to pay. ( and yes i know there are thousands who are in genuine hardship ). By being upfront and showing them this from the get go you might find them to be more sympathetic.

tbagfish

Thanks adprob, this is a good idea. I feel as though you've been productive as opposed to trying to make me feel guilty about the situation, as some others have done. At the end of the day I've had a lot of money taken from me and am now being asked to pay for his share of the bill too - if there was any justice in this situation then this wouldn't be happening to me at all, but your advice seems sound and next time I'll speak to them, I'll tell them that that's what I'm going to do.

MrsTinks

No-one has tried to make you feel guilty about the situation - just pointed out how things are to you.
There are 2 problems here (well actually possibly 3... but I'll get back to that...):
1 - your flatmate owes rent of £x amount to you and the 3rd party renting the flat. You need to chase your freeloading housemate for this amount - reasonably easy to do through small claims...
2 - there was outstanding utilities bills on the property you rented. Now I could be wrong here but £1800 sounds a lot maybe it IS right but compared to our usage it seems high... you might want to check that figure...(actually that was my point number 3...)
The utility company will chase whoever is easiest to recover the money from. If you show them you are on JSA and can afford say £10 a month etc, but HEY THIS guy over here at 1 free loaders road, cheapscate city might be able to pay them more - they MIGHT just go and try to track him down...

tbagfish

Thanks MrsTine...that's my plan. You say it's reasonably easy to do through small claims...you think I would have a case for the money in the eyes of the law? How would I go about doing that?

PNPSUKNET

Its classed as a third party dispute, like couple splits the energy provider will not get involved you are best seeking legal advice against your flat mate.

Fire_Fox

tbagfish wrote: »

Well the irony is that I would have 600 for my share if he hadn't stolen the rent money from me. But that's neither here nor there now; if they do let me pay small amounts being on JSA then that would be great. Well not great obviously, but the lesser of two evils.

But yes fortunately I do have enough to cover that; however the other tenant who I am in contact with won't have that amount of money as he also wasn't expecting to have to pay the vanishing tenant's bill. And like you guys have said the energy supplier won't be interested in how much he has, only what I have.

This means I will probably eventually end up paying £1800 minus whatever contribution I can get from the reasonable flatmate, when I've already had money taken from me It's going to be really tough to make ends meet having lost my job but I'll mentionm to them my JSA and see how small I can make my repayments

You don't need to pay all the money out, take your ex housemate to the small claims court. The law isn't weighted against you, it's weighted in favour of those who can prove money is owed. Your case should be pretty straightforward as your ex housemate didn't pay the rent and you lost your deposit as a direct result. There is documentary evidence of these facts. Many times people pay up before the case actually gets to court - the paperwork is enough to frighten them.

tbagfish

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You don't need to pay all the money out, take your ex housemate to the small claims court. The law isn't weighted against you, it's weighted in favour of those who can prove money is owed. Your case should be pretty straightforward as your ex housemate didn't pay the rent and you lost your deposit as a direct result. There is documentary evidence of these facts. Many times people pay up before the case actually gets to court - the paperwork is enough to frighten them.

Would you have any idea of the legal costs involced in filing a case? Thank you so much for your help