Who to chase if unpaid bills

Ibiscus_rosso

Hello there,

I was wondering if you could tell me who the energy supplier company (EDF in this case) chase when bills from previous tenants are unpaid.

Will it be enough to them for me to prove I was living somewhere before moving showing them previous bills?
Also, can I have organise another energy supplier in the meantime? I wll move in to this place in 2 days.

To chase the other tenants (who I think they're now in China) how will they do? Will they just leave it or ask the landlord to help them...?

Thank you for your help!

Ibiscus

wessexw

I've moved in to new properties a few times where bills were outstanding, all I ever did was ring the energy company telling them the date I had moved in and gave them a meter reading, I never mentioned the fact that I was aware of previous bills, they never mentioned it to me and I never heard anything about them after that. I certainly never had to prove I had been living some place previously. Anyway if it did come to that surely you have a contract with your landlord stating when you moved in and something like registering for council tax?

ceh209

I had this with EDF last month. They asked me to send proof of when I was responsible for the bills from. I faxed them the relevant bits of my tenancy agreement, and the same advisor phoned me back within about an hour to set up the account for me. You will definitely need the meter readings from when you move in, I'd make it the first things you do.

You'll need to set up an account with EDF before you switch, but as soon as you've got confirmation it's up and running, you can start the switch.

EDF advised me to send any correspondance from them for the previous tenants as 'return to sender', as I didn't have a forwarding address for them.

Sammy85_2

Make sure you have the meter readings from when you moved in.

If the previous tenant gave false readings when they settled up, and you dont have your readings from moving in, then you end up paying the outstanding debt. (Its happened to me)

I always take date stamped photos of the meters now.

coper

wessexw wrote: »

I've moved in to new properties a few times where bills were outstanding, all I ever did was ring the energy company telling them the date I had moved in and gave them a meter reading, I never mentioned the fact that I was aware of previous bills, they never mentioned it to me and I never heard anything about them after that. I certainly never had to prove I had been living some place previously. Anyway if it did come to that surely you have a contract with your landlord stating when you moved in and something like registering for council tax?

This has always been my experience too - any post you get for anyone else should be sent back marked "Return To Sender" - unless of course you have a fowarding address.