£10000/16 Electricity bill

losgiganteskid

My understanding is that when you buy into a "community" - ie a block of flats with communal areas for which there is a monthly service charge, you have to be aware that when you buy into that community any debts that the community has is transferred to you as the new owner.(bit like when you buy a property in Spain) It is for this reason that your lawyer upon purchase should have done all that was required to safeguard your position, ie to establish there was no known or possible unknown skeletons in the cupboard. My daughter had virtually the same experience a few years ago when she moved into her flat to discover there were unpaid fees/charges/debts attributed to the flat she just bought, after much hassle we successfully sued our solicitors, who did a crap job of the purchase.

Waldir

Cardew wrote:

You will need to look at the terms of the handover - did it absolve the developer from any debts that might surface? A call to your solicitor might be in order.

The first thing to do would be to NOT pay the bill and argue through the various channels the validity of the bill. I am certain they will reduce it or write it off. They simply cannot pluck an estimate out of thin air.

Thanks for your advice. I will try to get hold of the terms of the handover.


Following previous advice, I read the Energywatch website and found that:

[...] as a result of the ‘super-complaint’ submitted by energywatch in April 2005 to the energy regulator, Ofgem (see below), energy companies have been told that, as of July 2006, they should no longer bill for any energy used by consumers more than two years previously where the company themselves has failed to provide a bill. As of July 2007, energy companies will be expected not to bill for any amount that dates back longer than a year.

I still need to figure out whether this rule only applies to individual customers or also to a management company, but it may be a chance for me and other residents to avoid paying a large part of this unfair bill.

losgiganteskid wrote:

My understanding is that when you buy into a "community" - ie a block of flats with communal areas for which there is a monthly service charge, you have to be aware that when you buy into that community any debts that the community has is transferred to you as the new owner.(bit like when you buy a property in Spain) It is for this reason that your lawyer upon purchase should have done all that was required to safeguard your position, ie to establish there was no known or possible unknown skeletons in the cupboard.

The problem was only discovered last month... so it was impossible for my solicitor to have known about it (6 months ago). He correctly asked (and provided me with) the accounts of the management company, and of course, this problem wasn't visible yet.

Thanks again,
waldir