Massive BT bill

Grey_Jon

Hello,

In early 2010, I started a 12 month contract with BT, I believe it was option 2, but it's been a while, so I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, in October I was made homeless due to complicated family issues. Someone moved into my house, and I had to stay with family and friends miles away from my previous address. Finally I have found myself a permanant residence, and have been surprised with a phonecall from an debt collecting agency BT are using to collect a surprizing bill for £467. My monthly bills usually came to around £70 as I paid a quarterly bill. I had paid up until August of that year, so my next bill was due on November. I never got my bill of November redirected to me, and although I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I believe the person who moved in has been using my services. I have recently been able to check that bill ammount online and found it to be over £200. Somehow my bill jumped over £130 in that period. I didn't recieve my next bill either and that was when BT had decided to cancle my services, but still they added another £200 most of that bill if not all was a cancellation charge. All in all, this is a huge bill, especially for someone who isn't working now and living off JSA, £467 is over two whole months money.

My question is that if it turns out that this person has been using my service, will I still be forced to pay? Or will they be made to pay? That being said, what other advise could you offer me for such a massive bill?

Hopefully you can help me, thanks in advance for anything you can do to assist me,

Jon.

Heinz

Did you tell BT in October that you were leaving the address? You would have been charged a breach of contract fee then but, if you just left, the line (obviously) would still have been live and (again obviously), the new resident(s) has/have used it.

Trying to prove abstraction of electricity by him/her/them would be very difficult and, IMHO, you, as the named account holder, are responsible for the bill.

Go to see Citizens' Advice as soon as possible and get some advice on what to do now.

Grey_Jon

I phoned them several times to say I'd be leaving the address, and because I didn't really have the information regarding my new adress they seemed reluctant to listen. I left the house several weeks before I was due to, and I guess realising I was being made homeless must have made me forget about cancling it. I figured that this might be ultimately my fault, so I guess I'll find a way to deal with it. What surprised me was that BT had left the service running for two bills. They had my mobile phone on record, which was left in the care of family, so they would have been able to get in contact with me that way, because they wouldn't have been able to contact me through my home phone. Except the only contact I got through from them is through a debt collecting agency.

Thanks! I was going to go to citizen's advice about this anyway, but I wanted to make sure where I stood first before bothering them over it...

Heinz

Grey_Jon wrote: »

Except the only contact I got through from them is through a debt collecting agency.

Which sort of confirms misuse of the line by the new occupants (easy to ignore someone else's bills but less easy to ignore DCA letters/calls).