Never paid gas and electric

tigerfeet2006

Hi folks,

I am at the moment helping a friend who's husband has left her up the creek. When he walked out she found that he had not paid any electricity or gas since they had moved into thier house. It is a new build, housing associastion and they are the first tennants in. She has had a look through all the paperwork (we had to break into a filing cabinet to find everything) and we can't find anything relating to it. I asked him who the electric and gas were with and he just said they had never contacted him and so he had never bothered.

Question: Would it be ok to just go to any utility co. and say she had just moved in and could she set up an account? How do we work out which co. would be the bestdeal for her?

tigerfeet2006

Sorry just bumping this.

jd87

There is a current supplier and they will need to be paid before you move to anyone else. This guide explains how to find out who the current supplier is:

http://www.mypropertyguide.co.uk/articles/display/10041/who-supplies-my-gas-and-electric.htm

tigerfeet2006

Thanks for the link. So she will have pay 16 months electricity back?

spiro

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Thanks for the link. So she will have pay 16 months electricity back?

It will depend on the supplier. Before she contacts them she needs to get the facts in front of her; i.e. husband has walked out, fact that he has admitted to a third party he made no effort to contact supplier, husband dealt with all household bills, had to fice filling cabinet after the left to find details of anything. All of this may help in them giving her longer to pay. That said the supplier should have attempt to read meter, bill occupier during the period, you dont say how long this was.

jd87

I would say that the husband is responsible for the usage up to the point that he left the property, and the energy company will have to chase him for that. She will need to show that he had taken responsibility for the bill and that as far as she knew he was dealing with it and it was all supposed to be in his name. She will be responsible for the usage after he left.

I think the best thing to do is for her to call up the companies and offer to pay for the usage since he left (based on estimated usage if no readings are available), and give them his new contact details for them to chase him for the rest.

SwanJon

I'm a pessimist, but if she calls up and says she was living there all that time, they'll probably put the whole bill in her name. If there are no bills you could try the 12 months rule, but that does rely on the customer requesting a bill.
If there isn't an account, then the supplioer has no way of knowing if he ever lived there.

I'd go for the 'just taken responsibility for the house' route, but be prepared that they may find out and come and ask for the rest.
The energy was used by all occupants of the house.

littletommytucker

Your Friend is in a very unfortunate situation. They can persue any one single person that has been living at the property for the energy used. Eg if it was a student house with 5 people and they all left after a year without paying then the first person they track down would be requested to pay the entire sum. ... Unfortunately your friend will be the person they will want the money from because they are most likely to get it from her because she still lives there. If she says she has just moved in and then they find she has been on the electoral register or even applied for credit whilst she has lived at the address, then they will know she has been lieing.... And a credit search is the first thing they will do when the balance is passed to a colection agency.

violetta

littletommytucker wrote: »

Your Friend is in a very unfortunate situation. They can persue any one single person that has been living at the property for the energy used. Eg if it was a student house with 5 people and they all left after a year without paying then the first person they track down would be requested to pay the entire sum. ... Unfortunately your friend will be the person they will want the money from because they are most likely to get it from her because she still lives there. If she says she has just moved in and then they find she has been on the electoral register or even applied for credit whilst she has lived at the address, then they will know she has been lieing.... And a credit search is the first thing they will do when the balance is passed to a colection agency.

Perhaps she ought to revert to her maiden name sharpish!

littletommytucker

Perhaps she ought to revert to her maiden name sharpish!

I dealt with someone who did this last week. Again, if she was to apply for credit, any credit agreement would require her to submit her pervious married name, at which stage she would get caught out. At British Gas when they catch you doing this, they transfer the balance you owe onto your account and then ask for a 500 security deposit towards your future bills. Failing this they would force fit a PrePayment meter with warrent if neccessary