Domestic bills

Eli_2-2

Well I split with my partner for all sorts of reasons including his debts and head in the sand you sort my money out attitude.
BUT now he has moved out im left with a £400 electic bill in my name (he kept a heater on 24/7 in the concervatary to stop his pc getting condinsation)
£80 Water bill in joint names.
£180 gas bill in his name.
£240 council tax arrears in joint names.

Any advice please?

ms_london

Hi there. Sorry to hear about your predicament.

Since one of the bills are in his name & a few in joint names, he needs to take responsibility for his share!!

I suggest that you call ALL of the companies & let him know that he has left the property, that you will pay the ££££, but can you agree a repayment programme. I am hoping your OH will stump up some money to help, but if he doesnt, unfortunately they still need to be paid.

Sorry that probably isnt much help!!

xx

LookingAhead

Crikey. Well I don't know any answers for sure but if it were me I would contact Citizens Advice about how to get the money out of him for the ones where he is a joint name.

Contact all the 'suppliers' and explain/tell them you cannot pay it all at once. I can't believe the Electric supplier woudl expect payment all at once.

You can't be cut off from water if you are paying something.

With the Council Tax, if you are paying your half and can prove he is not there anymore, I can't believe they can take any further action?

vicki98_2

A similar thing happened to me when i split with my ex. He moved out & expected me to pay all the bills .. many of which were outstanding .. another head in the sand type thing only he was hiding them from me so they didnt get sorted.
Anyway, most of our bills were in joint names. I rung all the companies to let them know he had moved out and that i didn't want to be held fully responsible for everything, I gave them his new address so he could be contacted and arranged a payment plan so i could pay off my half. doing this worked for some of the bills but not all .. the way they saw it was that i was still living in the flat even after he moved out .. so i was responsible for paying the electric/gas etc.. so long as they got their money, they didn't seem bothered who it came from. The others agreed an amount for me to pay and an amount for him (a 50/50 split) and once i had paid my share it was all down to the ex. For the bills in his name .. i rung them with his new address so he could be contacted and had to pay them. If you have a forwarding address for your ex, it might be an idea to do the same so you don't have to pay his bills as well.

calleyw

LookingAhead wrote:

With the Council Tax, if you are paying your half and can prove he is not there anymore, I can't believe they can take any further action?

Unless it has changed they don't care even if you have paid your half. They will still take you both to court. As I was in that position about ten years ago. I bought a house with a friend and at a later stage moved out. I paid my half of the council tax bill and got a summons as she had not. And they said as it was a joint debt then we are both liable. So even if you have paid your half they will come after both of you.

And council tax is what is called a crown debt so if you don't pay they could put you in prison.

Any thing in joint names means they will pursue both named person. But they will always try and go after the easy target. e.g the one who has paid half.

Best bet is to ring gas/water and council tax bods up tell them what has happened and if you have an address for him then pass it on. The bills in joint names offer a token payment of £5 a week. They can say no but as long as you pay something they are happy with that. But please let them know sooner rather than later.


Yours


Calley

sproggi

A friend of mine was left with over £900 debt for gas/elec and phone after she kicked out her now ex hubby. He had been drinking the money away as soon as he got it.
I phoned Powergen up for her and explained the situation, they then set her debt payments at £3 per week to be taken via her card meter. She was on Incapacity, hence such a small payment.

They did try sending a copy of the bill to him in the hope that he might pay something, but no luck.

Sorry it is not alot of help, but agree with others about phoning.

Sproggi

Xbigman

The stuff in your name only is yours to pay, if possible pay this first. The accounts in his name only should be put in your name by advising the companies concerned he has left and you want to open a NEW account. Don't switch the existing account into your name. If they refuse to open a new account leave it in his name for now.

The stuff in joint names is not owed half each, you both owe it all. Where do you live, mortgaged, council, rented? Anything but rented and you will be the easier of the two of you to contact because you are still there, so its you they will chase. If you are also still using any an account in joint names then the account is in arrears and you're the one paying it. Try to get anything in joint names switched into new accounts in your name too. Different companies have different policies on this but you can only ask.

If you rent privately you should move. Thats clears everything up and you can open new accounts for everything.

If you need a good credit rating be prepared to pay all the joint debts yourself. If he doesn't pay you are financially linked and it will affect your credit history.

The best result is if you get him to give you some money so you can pay things off, don't trust him to do it.
Regards



X

keith_lard

Contact them all, say that you are willing to pay off all debts in your name!
Offer them a plan and stick to it.
Tell them what has happened (your not the only one)
For you to make the effort to sort it out, they should realise what you are doing is best!
Only offer what you can afford.

Sorry to hear you have been treated by your other half like this.

Hope you get these bill's sorted soon.

good luck.

k.

In_Search_Of_Me

Sorry this has happened. I am fairly certain that you are liable for anything in joint names but suggest that you contact CAB (as suggested by someone else) for advice. Would also suggest if at all possible that you contact you x & ask him for a share of the money & tell them that if they dont pay you will be forced to get legal advice & legal action against them - may make them think twice about not paying of notning else & worth a try! Hope you sort this, let us know how you get on! Big hug meanwhile. Make sure you tell companies that he has moved too...have you contacted council re council tax as you should be eligible for a single person rebate which is quite a bit & if you explain situation they may backdate to when he left in the circumstances...are you eligible for any benefits?