Help needed with a tenants debt owed to Scottish Power

stubs

Firstly, I'm a lowsy, lowsy "landlord"
My problems all started a few years ago when I broke up with my partner and bought her out of the joint mortgage. She moved out and a friend (although not so much anymore) moved in and paid me £200/m towards bills.

Shortly after, I moved jobs and re-located to London. I left my friend in the house and another lad moved in, also paying £200/m. At the time I had all the utilities in my name, until they started over-using and I decided I wanted them to start paying themselves. My friend took on the bills and would collect some money off the other lad. My friend moved out, and unknown to me till a little later, hadn't paid off any bills (despite taking money from the other lad).

Being that I was well off & a bit stupid, I just settled the debt and took it on the nose. Another 2 guys moved in, making it 3 and I asked them to take on the bills between them. Some months later, I had a call from a neigbour about a debt collection visit. I contacted the company and was informed that I owed £xxxx for unpaid bills as they had been put into my name!! Being that I lived in London, I wasn't aware of this... naturally the dis-honest tenants weren't telling me that bills were dropping through the door in my name.

Again, I settled some of the debt to prevent any trouble (a lot of my furniture is still in the property, so didn't want that going... and didn't want any other bad things to go against me) and I asked the 3 lads to pay me back the money between them. I also asked Scottish Power to put the bills in one of the tenants names, and he could collect the money off the other 2. This was about 12 months ago.

I managed to collect 1/3 off 2 of them, the 3rd person promptly moved out without leaving any details and owing me some "rent" and the bill money.

One of the remaining 2 is now in the army and hardly ever at the property, and the tenant who's name the bills were in moved out in June (owing me some money for "rent"). I am now finding out that he still owes Scottish Power £1k+ and they are sending collection letters again and looking to cut off the supply and/or take belongings

Now here comes the most stupid part of all this... As I was totally clueless about renting and such, I didn't get a tenancy agreement sorted for anyone. Nor do I have forwarding addresses for any of the past tenants (apart from knowing where the last person works - the one who's name the Scottish Power account was in)

How do I stand with Scottish Power? Can I tell them I am not responsible for the debt as it's not in my name? Or as the owner of the property and with no tenancy agreements, am I actually responsible?

As I have now moved back from London and will be moving back into the property in January, I have already paid them £200 and agreed to setup a 6 months direct debit for £180 to cover the debt and what will be my usage. Have I blown any chance of telling them to chase him for the debt?

I know I am stupid for not doing things right, but I am clueless when it comes to things like this and quite often scared to get the right help until its too late "bury my head in the sand" as it's been said before

Any help or advise would be great
Stu

Scottish_Power

Hi stubs

I sorry to hear about your circumstances. Unfortunately as owner of the property and without a tenancy agreement you will be held liable for the outstanding balance.

To cover yourself in future, make sure that you have a signed tenancy agreement when a new tenant moves into the property detailing the date and the meter readings when they moved in. This information can then be provided at a later stage if it is brought to your attention that accounts have not been set up correctly by your tenants.

Good luck with your future tenants.

Colin @ ScottishPower