No Electric Bill for 6 years - Assistance Required Please

mooroman

Hi - I purchased a new build property 6 years ago. Upon completion, we did not have a key to access the cupboard where the electricity meter is located. Despite several attempts to contact the original builders and management company the correct key never arrived - although I did receive the meter reading from the builders - this went on for several months. At time time we contacted a couple of Power Suppliers withe the meter no. (provided by the original builders) but had no response. The property was tenanted a couple of months after completion and we advised the tenants that they should try and contact the electricity providers as they were responsible for the bill. Our tenants have recently vacated the property and to my astonishment have never receive an electricity bill - they have now gone back to Poland (with no forwarding address). I had a card through the letterbox last week from ScottishPower advising me that they are the electricity suppliers and for me to get in touch with them. A couple of days later I recevied a bill (in the names of 2 people - neither of which are my tenants) for £1600 !!! Am I as the landlord now liable for this or can I refuse to pay as I didn't user the electricity? My argument would be that I assumed everything was sorted because everytime we visited the property for routine inspections the electric was on and therefore I assumed the bill was being paid. I had heard that the electric company can only go back 12 months to reclaim payments. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Premier_2

You'll need to contact the supplier

If the bill is not addressed to you, you don't owe the amount. But you probably owe something.

If you supply proof that the property was tenanted for some of the time, the supplier may try and chase those people for usage (assuming the tenants and not the LL was responsible for energy bills according to the TA)

The fact the bill is not in the ex-tenants name suggests there may be a mix up with reagrds to meters, addresses etc ... something that is quite common in new build flats and something you should also sort out when you contact the supplier.

If you've still not got access to the cupboard, get a locksmith in. You need access, as the account holder you are responsible for allowing access to the supplier as required, and presumably the isolation switch and circuit breakers are also in the cupboard, so you need access for your own safety.

The 12 month back billing rule doesn't apply as you didn't contact the supplier to register an account with them when you purchased the property. Despite getting away with not having charged you so far, you will owe the supplier money for any consumption and possible standing charges.
They'll also probably bill you on their most expensive standard tariff as you didn't arrange anything different.

undaunted

mooroman wrote: »

Hi - I purchased a new build property 6 years ago. Upon completion, we did not have a key to access the cupboard where the electricity meter is located. Despite several attempts to contact the original builders and management company the correct key never arrived - although I did receive the meter reading from the builders - this went on for several months. At time time we contacted a couple of Power Suppliers withe the meter no. (provided by the original builders) but had no response. The property was tenanted a couple of months after completion and we advised the tenants that they should try and contact the electricity providers as they were responsible for the bill. Our tenants have recently vacated the property and to my astonishment have never receive an electricity bill - they have now gone back to Poland (with no forwarding address). I had a card through the letterbox last week from ScottishPower advising me that they are the electricity suppliers and for me to get in touch with them. A couple of days later I recevied a bill (in the names of 2 people - neither of which are my tenants) for £1600 !!! Am I as the landlord now liable for this or can I refuse to pay as I didn't user the electricity? My argument would be that I assumed everything was sorted because everytime we visited the property for routine inspections the electric was on and therefore I assumed the bill was being paid. I had heard that the electric company can only go back 12 months to reclaim payments. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

It's beyond me that either owner tennant or supplier can continue to allow this kind of thing to happen. Ultimately everyone else ends up paying for it simply because you didn't sort the problem out & then expected the tennant to do so for you.

If you were using electric initially you must owe them something, though how it will be "unravelled properly" now is hard to see. There is already another similar thread you could have a look at for comments. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2597399