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Previous owner has left unpaid bills, am I liable?

tomstickland
Posts: 19,538 Forumite

I've just been fishing through the stack of mail in the postbox for the flat I've just bought. I've found several payment demands for the water and a letter threatening to cut off the electricity.
I'm going to contact the various suppliers tomorrow.
Is there any chance that I might have to pay?
I now know the names of three of the previous tenants, so I'm doing some detective work to see if I can trace the most recent anyway. I have a few other questions I'd like to find some answers to anyway.
Oh yes,
I'm going to contact the various suppliers tomorrow.
Is there any chance that I might have to pay?
I now know the names of three of the previous tenants, so I'm doing some detective work to see if I can trace the most recent anyway. I have a few other questions I'd like to find some answers to anyway.
Oh yes,

Happy chappy
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Comments
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No you are not liable. Give them the meter readings from the day you moved in and just keep sending back the bills not addressed to you. I'm still doing it 2 1/2 years after the previous owners left.A house isn't a home without a cat.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others.
I have writer's block - I can't begin to tell you about it.
You told me again you preferred handsome men but for me you would make an exception.
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.0 -
I had a similar situation a few years ago, as my house was a re-possession. The previous owner decided to move abroad, and knowing that he was going, didn't pay any bills for a while. The house was re-possessed once he'd gone, and I bought it from the Abbey. United Utilities happily took my details, and my money for some time, whilst still sending demands that I sent back to them, as they were addressed to the previous owner.
I did, however, end up ringing them, when I received a hand-delivered letter from a debt collection agency, stating that they had been asked to recover the debt (I don't remember how much) and would be calling on a particular date between 1300-1730. :mad: At this point, they had been taking DD payments from my bank account for the last ten months, after I had notified them that I was the new owner, but it seems this counted for nothing. That coupled with the fact that when 'returning to sender' I'd put onto their envelopes addressed to him, that he had actually gone to Brazil (according to neighbours, anyway) and I had bought the house as a re-possession, seemed to have done nothing to make them realise it was a futile cause.
I had a HUGE row with a call centre supervisor, when she tried to tell me that UU couldn't help, as the debt was nothing to do with UU any more, as UU had sold the debt to the collection agency !!!! :eek: She advised me to contact the debt collection agency myself to explain it them - on their 0870 telephone number quoted in their letter...
Having worked in telephone call centres, I always get the name of the person I'm speaking to before anything in conversations like this, so they can't cut me off and pretend the conversation didn't happen. I continued to argue my case (on their freephone number) until she eventually relented and said she would speak to her superiors and call me back. It took them another ten days to finally agree to contact the debt collection agency and recind the request/debt.
The only other problem I had was the electricity pre-payment meter that had been installed. They (can't remember who it was now) wanted me to keep it for six months before replacing. I made them come and change it. It wasn't my credit history that was bad - it was the previous owner, so I argued that I was not going to pay the inflated pre-payment meter prices. They didn't agrue too much when presented with my previous good record from my last address...
In short - you're not liable for their bill in any way shape or form. Unless it's a ground-rent type of lease-holder issued bill. These are the only exceptions I can think of. Make sure you are listed as the new owner of the property asap and maybe even take a photo of the meter reading whilst holding todays newspapers next to it - you know - just in case....0 -
You talk about previous tenants, not owners. I would think this would be the responsibility of the previous owner and he/she should have to pay any unpaid bills and then get the tenant responsible to pay. This should definitely not be your problem. Didin't you get your name on the bills from the time you bought the property? Contact the companies billing you and ask them to send you only bills for usage after the time you became the owner.... Now I don't know how those things work in the UK but in my part of the world, that would work.0
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Not being funny,but if the mail isn't addressed to you,you are not legally entitled to open it!
You really should have just sent it back to sender with not known at this address.
You would not be liable for these bills as they relate to the time before you bought the property.
Good luck in your new home,you don't seem to have had an easy time of it all.Debt at highest £102k :eek:
Lightbulb moment march 2006
Debt free october2017 :j
Finally sleeping easy in my bed :A0 -
newUKshopper wrote:I would think this would be the responsibility of the previous owner and he/she should have to pay any unpaid bills and then get the tenant responsible to pay.
It's not the responsability of the previous owner. If bills are in the name of the tenant then so is the debt.0 -
I was in a similar position when I first moved into this house 9 months ago. The young couple who lived here before decamped to Australia, and didn't seem to bother telling any of the companies they dealt with that they'd gone.
They evidently left a lot of debt as there were huge amounts of mail for them. I kept sending the envelopes back marked 'Not at this address - return to sender'.
Gradually the deluge has slowed to a trickle, but I've also had numerous calls from various companies (I kept their phone number - won't do that again!) and a couple of visits from the heavies! Each time, I've explained the situation and they've accepted it.
They also left the ground rent unpaid - I was shocked to receive the first bill showing an amount of £300 outstanding. The annual ground rent is £45! I sent a cheque for £10 (the pro-rata amount from when I'd moved in), and explained why I'd done that. They replied saying it was still my responsibility as the debt transfers with the house not the owner, and my solicitor should have picked it up during the house purchase. I wrote back and said I'd get my solicitor to look into it, but as the outstanding amount was equivalent to about 6 years' worth of rent it didn't seem that they (the builders) were too bothered about collecting it. I didn't contact my solicitor - thought I'd wait to see what the response from the builder was. They didn't reply, but I've just received another bill from them - for £22.50 for 6 months, plus a balance brought forward of £12.50, ie the difference between the £10 I sent them and the six monthly rent. Total amount owing £35 - no mention of the previous arrears! Result!!:T:A "I love deadlines. I particularly like the whooshing sound they make as they go by." the late lamented Douglas Adams:A
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You're not liable - just keep sending the post pack with 'Not known at this address - remove from mailing list' on it (hint - buy one of those cheap rubber stamps that you can set up with your own message to take the bother out of doing this). As someone else said, you're not actually legally allowed to open post (even the police aren't), so just send it back. It will stop, eventually, although it could take a couple of years.
One thing I would advise though - contact the credit reference agencies and put in a notice of dissociation for the people concerned, otherwise your credit rating could be adversely affected.0 -
livinginhope wrote:Not being funny,but if the mail isn't addressed to you,you are not legally entitled to open it!
84. - (3) A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000026.htm:A "I love deadlines. I particularly like the whooshing sound they make as they go by." the late lamented Douglas Adams:A
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I've phoned all of the suppliers today and none expect me to cover previous bills.to a person's detrimentHappy chappy0
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As others say, anything address to someone else should have the address crossed out and "return to sender" and Addressee unknown/ gone away depending on which is appropriate put on the front and put it back in the post (dont need to put any postage on it)All posts made are simply my own opinions and are neither professional advice nor the opinions of my employers
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