Dispute with ex-flatmate over gas and electricity bill- advice needed

thepurplegoldfish

WOW! I'm glad I never had thins kind of trouble when I was flat sharing.

I agree with several of the other posters on this subject if she can't see what is clearly the case and is continuing to withhold your money I'd take her to court. Have it settled once and for all. The court will be able to see the bills as she'll have to produce them and the court will make the correct judgement. This would stop you having this hanging over you and will get you your deposit back in your account earning interest.


Hope she sees she's not going to get one over on you and just refunds you your deposit less the outstanding utilities amount £41/£50. Keep us up to date as to what's happened, I hate reading things like this and then there is no conclusion.:rotfl:

grahamc2003

grahamc2003 wrote: »

(Incidently, the payments and balance are totally irrelevent to the sitation, but I suspect you'll have a problem convincing your flatmate!). .

LOL! From your following posts IWW, it looks like even you don't realise the payments and balance are irrelevent to what you owe!

lwwatson

I understand the payments and balance are irrelevant to what I owe. I was using it to illustrate my point as the account was paid off when we moved out and the figures match on both sides once you take away the £67 for the time between 13/11 and 24/11 when I wasn't there and the original debit amount before I moved in. It's fairly straightforward that it's the amount of the actual bills minus the £67 between 13/11 and 24/11 but she seems to be either unable to understand this or accept it

JasX

Again, completly irrelevant information, you need to see bills related to METER READINGS and useage (even if estimates) in KWH.

Monetary amounts are completly irrelevant as for all you know you could be paying debt built up on the account previously.

As you said tell her to send you a copy of the bills showing useage information and dates, her persistent attempts to fob you off with irrelevant unrequested info is wastiing time and arousiing suspicion.

she should ask for copies from her supplier if she has lost them

JasX

lwwatson wrote: »

the original debit amount before I moved in. ................... she seems to be either unable to understand this or accept it

No actually you're talking gibberish now.... simple concept you've not grasped and will chase in circles till you do:

The BALANCE on the account is IRRELEVANT as you have not made the link to how it relates to useage.

the debt on the account could have stayed the same, OR could have INCREASED over the period you were there (in which case you'll owe her money) OR the debt on the account coould have decreased (in which case you'll be owed money).

Its not really that complicated a concept but you are making a real hash of understanding it.

zzzLazyDaisy

Also, it sounds to me like you were a lodger (rent and bills all in her name, she lives in the flat, you shared the facilities).

This means that she has no obligation to protect the deposit, and can deduct any outstanding money owed from the deposit. But equally if she can't prove the figures for the money she claims that you owe her, she will be in difficulties if this goes to court.

In her shoes, I'd deduct the money owing for the bills from the deposit, pay you the balance, and let you sue me for any amount in dispute. I can't understand why she isn't doing this, unless she knows that she can't justify her calculation? Or unless she doesn't have the money to give you the deposit back, and is playing games to drag things out?

lwwatson

I just stated that I know it is irrelevant but she cannot seem to grasp that the only figures that matter are the actual amounts of usage during the period of my residency, for which I have 4 separate statements showing the breakdown for gas and electricity, between the periods 13/11-31/1, 1/2-6/2, 7/2-22/2 and 23/2-31/3, once taking off the £67 pro-rata'd for the 11 days I wasn't there, it comes to £603

I have merely used the balance and the payments side to emphasise firstly that the direct debits do relate directly to the charges and are not outwith it (as she claims the D/D's are outwith it). The debt on the account when I moved in was £116.28, and when I left was £0. I don't think I'm making a hash of understanding it, I realise the only important figures are usage BUT as I say I am merely using the payments side to emphasise that the figures she is giving me are complete nonsense

JasX

Well simplest thing you can do in that case is add up the USEAGE for the 4 months, and put it plainly that in 4 months we used x kWH electricity and y kWH gas, you are on tariff T so doing the sums we used £x worth total while I was there so I owe you £x/2 total which I have paid.

You'll only confuse her getting into dd installments, should be sufficient to say that as SHE pays in installments to spread the cost over the year (of heavy winter useage vs lighter summer useage) you can't be responsible for paying for extra fuel used outside the times you were there as you'll be paying your higher bills at wherever it is you happen to be living in winter where you'll be paying for what you actually use, no more, no less.

lwwatson wrote: »

for which I have 4 separate statements showing the breakdown for gas and electricity, between the periods 13/11-31/1, 1/2-6/2, 7/2-22/2 and 23/2-31/3,

and you'll only sow seeds of confusion around here posting £s rather than the kWH these statements show, things could further be complicated if the bills are based on estimates rather than actual readings

lwwatson

OK, thanks for your advice. I'm awaiting her reply to my original email now and will contact her again if I don't receive a reply, or if she doesn't agree with what I say. I can understand that if I pursued this further I could possibly be due less but in the interests of having it resolved, I'm willing to settle on the amount mentioned in the email I sent. Thanks for taking the time to help out, I'll let you know how she replies