electric bill responsibility

disgrundled

I own business premises that was let to a tenant till 2004 when he left saying he had informed edf energy and paid all bills.
I have now Nov 2010 had a letter at my home address saying that i owe £2600 pounds and rising every day as they are putting a standing charge for the meter of 60p a day.
I have never had a contract with edf as the tenant changed suppliers without my knowledge or consent and this new contract was in his name, until the day he left.
Edf have never contacted us in the last 6 years till now and are refusing to change to a tarrif with no standing charge as obviously there has been no electricity used in the last six years,can they charge us for standing charges or any other amounts not of our creating. Grateful for any urgent advice. thanks.

BargainGalore

Who ever is named on the bill is responsible the normal consumer rights dont apply the to back billing I believe

disgrundled

they have traced us as property owners us never having a contract for services with them, that was previous tenant


is six years duration relevant at all

spiro

As this is a business premise a lot of rules like 12 month back billing dont apply.
Most business contracts are 12 month rolling contracts.
Are you saying the property has sat emtpy since 2004? Did any bills arrived address to 'The Occupier'?
As a tenant unless it states in specifically in the lease (hard to enforce) he is free to choose whichever electricity supplier he wants. You need to check with EDF when he signed a contract and how long it was for. Also check that he paid the 'Final' bill when he moved out. If he paid the final bill the problem then is that a 'deemed' contract then exists with whoever takes on the property even if you only switch a light on.
How is the £2600 broken down? Is it only a standing charge or is there consumption and standing charge?

disgrundled

Property has sat empty since 2004

No - but nothing could be delivered as the property is boarded up

We asked EDF when tenant signed a contract with them and they wont say

He told us he did pay the final bill but EDF will not confirm or deny this

Charge is made up of a standing charge and estimated useage with standing charge being racked up daily despite no electricity useage

The very last account I had prior to tenant taking over shop was with northern electric and no standing charge how can i be responsible for one now

i look forward to reply

thanks

Lobster10

I deal with Business electricity and gas at my work and deal and liaise with the tenants in our building.

Unfortunately business gas and electricity is different to domestic and unless you agree a price with they company they can charge you what they like including a standing charge and you will also probably find that you will have been put tarrif that automatically renews.

If you want to leave them you will will need to give them the required amount of the notice in their renewal period. You will need to ask them when this is and when your contract is due to renew.

Unfortunately as owner of the unoccupied building you are responsible for the electric and gas even whilst no one is in there and it is up to you to find out who the supplier is when the tenant leaves and to organise an appropriate tarrif. We have several buildings that are empty and will be for a while so one of the contracts that we are on is a 0p standing charge, but with a high unit rate fixed for a year, but as the electric isn't going to be used that will be fine for us. When we then get a tenant we give them the suppliers name and it is then up to them to arrange a new contract with the supplier.

spiro

Get them there to read the meter asap, ideally with you present. They will then be able to compare todays reading with the reading used on the final bill of the tenant. As the owner you will be responsible for any comsumption after that date.

In terms of the standing charge, what occured when the tenant left was a 'Change of Tenancy' and you should have registered as the tenant/owner and the account would have been transferred into your name. You will need to prove to EDF when the tenant left and you took over responsibility, hopefully you have contracts to prove this. The problem will be that even if one unit has been used between the tenants final bill and the reading today a deem contract will be in place and the prices on deemed contracts (domestic or business) are always the standard (read high) tariff.