Previous owner has left unpaid bills, am I liable?

stratford_2

Whoosher wrote:

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.>

Whoosher wrote:

Total amount owing £35 - no mention of the previous arrears! Result!!:T

Could you be chased for the arrears when you come to sell, and your buyer's solicitor does their job properly when asking the landolord if there are any outstanding charges? I do appreciate that you mentioned that the balance brough forward implies that they might have written it off though!

Whoosher

stratford wrote:

Could you be chased for the arrears when you come to sell, and your buyer's solicitor does their job properly when asking the landolord if there are any outstanding charges? I do appreciate that you mentioned that the balance brough forward implies that they might have written it off though!

Good point - I hope not! I'll see what's on the next bill in 6 months' time. Hopefully it will have a nil balance brought forward and £22.50 owing - provided I remember to put the cheque in the post!

Joe_Bloggs

Some bills are paid for in advance. Telephone line rental, TV license and unmetered water spring to mind. When I moved in the bills were addressed to the occupier. Quite a few of them were red, threatening legal action and disconnection if the bill was not paid. I was told by the suppliers that these were just standard letters. This may well have caused anxiety in those unfamiliar with such stunts.

Get hold of ground rent and service charges. Often these numbers are estimates and projections of future totals. The property management company should not have refunded surpluses in the fund to the vendors.
In my case they did and my solicitor reserved cash for a year from the settlement to make sure it was a one off occurence and unlikely to happen again. I think the previous owners had missed a payment and had to pay extra in advance to get into the good books of the property management company.
J_B.

Dee123_2

Hi Tom...Congratulations on your new purchase!!

Good advice above. I bought my place two years ago and it had had plenty of tenants over the ten years it had been rented out. Luckily it was rented through an estate agent so I trundled down there with a couple of carrierbags full of post.

Utility companies are fine once you ring them. The only thing I'd add is that I'd suggest you keep sending other bills back to Sender. I started binning one guys Visa bills after 6 months of taking them to the Estate Agents and then the company called for him regarding his outstanding balance. They said I should have sent them back to them marked Return to Sender.

Hope you have a great weekend pottering about your new gaff

Dee

PINGA14

newUKshopper wrote:

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.

The owner isn't responsible for the debts.
My father rented out a property and the tenant left owing hundreds to the utilities. I phoned them with meter readings and changed the account back to him with no problems and the tenant was still liable for the debt.

tomstickland

As far as I'm concerned, any issues have been sorted - all of the utilities were very helpful.