Electricity Bill Dilemma

RoryJR

Hey People,

An informative forum, however I'm in a dilemma and would appreciate your help.

I am renting out an apartment with another person. When we moved in we assumed the landlord would transfer the services (electricity) in our name as these is a core utility and it was running when we moved in, we setup all the others.

Off recent, we have been contacted for a demand of £1500 by our electricity supplier, I am not sure how they have achieved such figure as even though from the date we signed a tenancy agreement, we didn't actually move in until a few months later. We were prepared to pay rent for a few months even though we would wouldn't be living there (just to secure the apartment)

Now we have the bills are not in our name, and we have come to the decision they are trying to include the arrears of the previous tenant (whose name appears on the bill) from us as well. They have no account setup on our name?

What is our way out of this, obviously we want to pay for what we have used but with the figure they have given we are sure that is unacceptable.


Any ideas?

Many Thanks

KimYeovil

The bills are not in your name - they are nothing to do with you.

But you do have a deemed contract from the day you secured the apartment (not from the day you eventually moved in). If you did not take readings either time then the bills can be re-estimated but only from the earlier date. Remember you will still be due standing charges even if you used nothing (deemed contracts will be on the standard tariff which will have daily standing charge.) It was up to you to contact the landlord/agent when you secured the place to establish opening reads.

The arrears from the previous tenant are only legally due from them - but it will be non-trivial to accurately disentangle the actual sum.

RoryJR

Hi there,

Many Thanks for your reply.

I am obviously prepared to pay how much I owe them. However, I want them to recalculate the bills using the meter reading I have. Now will they accept this as I took down the meter reading the day I moved in and have this to provide to them. I have noticed this is different from what they have used.

So I was wondering the bills not in our name, can I use this to my advantage to make sure I pay for the electricity which was utlised whilst we lived there?

dom300186

Ok what you need to do is either if you took a read when you moved in or ring the landlord for them, if you didn't take one they will use the landlords or estimate. But it is yours and your landlords responcibility to read themeter when you leave and the landlord is supposed too if you don't it's tough luck I'm afraid. Some tenancy agreements have the landlords reads onif you still have it, but check thru are going to an actual read not an estimate, if it does take a read but if your read is lower the lower the bill if it's over you've already used it.

dogshome

Hi RoryJR - You need to get hold of this situation quickly before the Utility provider goes into 'Wolverine Debt Collection'
Write to the provider enclosing copies of your Tenancy agrreement with the start date of your occupation, together with the meter reading you took when you moved in.

If you reading is a long way off from the reading stated on the bill, it's likely that there is a debt from the previous tenant on the account, and as you did not report the start of your tenancy and opening meter reading when moving in, things could become difficult

If this happens, point out to the provider that your tenancy agreement proves your start date, and logically your Start meter reading must higher than any other reading taken at an earlier date.
Good Luck

Cardew

Post above is correct.

The Utility company are really not too interested in who owes what!! although they do try to help. Essentially any dispute is between you, the landlord and the previous tenant.

Unless you can establish the meter reading when the old tenant left - and they agree that reading - then you/landlord have a problem.

You didn't notify the electricity company of the reading when you took control of the flat and you moved in some months later. Why should the company accept your readings and bill the old tenant based on your figures?

The £1,500 bill will give the date of the last meter reading(possibly estimated?). How long was that before you signed the tenancy agreement?