problem with gas company

iaiworgan

hi

im a student living in a privately rented flat, last week the gas man came round and asked for let just call them "mr smith" i said i dont know any mr smith im ..... he then said you havnt paid your gas bill (at this point we have a pay as you go meter thinking it was both gas and electric) so i explained this he said no, you owe us rent from september. so that 7+ months. turns out he had been sending the bills to this address in the previous tenets name. now i phone the company when we moved in to tell them we where moving in and how do we pay for bills they said they where all on a meter (same company for gas and electric) so i thought nothing of it untill this man appeared

now i was just wondering where i stand? do i have to pay? if so do i have to pay it all off in one go?

i explained that we could pay it all off so he said we will fit a pre paid meter for you on monday

will this have credited what we owe on it?

sorry for all the questions

also sorry for the terrible writing skills im a graphic design student :-)

cheers

iain

spiro

Yes you will have to pay the money.
Will you have to pay in one go - you need to discuss a payment plan with the supplier. But you say you can pay it all so why not just do that.
Also you need to check what tariff you are on as 'pay on bill' tariffs are normally the most expensive.

jay1181

iaiworgan wrote: »

hi

im a student living in a privately rented flat, last week the gas man came round and asked for let just call them "mr smith" i said i dont know any mr smith im ..... he then said you havnt paid your gas bill (at this point we have a pay as you go meter thinking it was both gas and electric) so i explained this he said no, you owe us rent from september. so that 7+ months. turns out he had been sending the bills to this address in the previous tenets name. now i phone the company when we moved in to tell them we where moving in and how do we pay for bills they said they where all on a meter (same company for gas and electric) so i thought nothing of it untill this man appeared

now i was just wondering where i stand? do i have to pay? if so do i have to pay it all off in one go?

i explained that we could pay it all off so he said we will fit a pre paid meter for you on monday

will this have credited what we owe on it?

sorry for all the questions

also sorry for the terrible writing skills im a graphic design student :-)

cheers

iain

yip going to have to pay for it and they will let you pay it up they may ask for a statment of accounts eg what you make ect so they can set the repayments . sorry its not better news

DVardysShadow

spiro wrote: »

Yes you will have to pay the money.
Will you have to pay in one go - you need to discuss a payment plan with the supplier. But you say you can pay it all so why not just do that.
Also you need to check what tariff you are on as 'pay on bill' tariffs are normally the most expensive.

Wrong advice. OP should insist on bills, check them and accept responsibility for payment only from date of taking over premises. OP should also not accept a prepayment meter until having had a chance to look through the bills.

spiro

DVardysShadow wrote: »

check them and accept responsibility for payment only from date of taking over premises.

Poster has not said that he hasn't lived there since so I have to assume bill covers his period of occupancy.

DVardysShadow

spiro wrote: »

Poster has not said that he hasn't lived there since so I have to assume bill covers his period of occupancy.

OP indeed is still at the address as I read it. This is a previous tenant. Now OP has called to update the supplier, but it appears that the supplier has chosen to ignore this. So, yes the bills probably do cover the period of OP's occupancy but they will also include the previous occupier.

OP should NOT pay the bills at this time because they are in the name of the old occupier - and in paying he will encourage the supplier to think that he is indeed the old occupier and he will be hounded if the old occupier did a runner leaving debt. OP should insist on bills from his date of occupation in his name.

iaiworgan

spiro wrote: »

Yes you will have to pay the money.
Will you have to pay in one go - you need to discuss a payment plan with the supplier. But you say you can pay it all so why not just do that.
Also you need to check what tariff you are on as 'pay on bill' tariffs are normally the most expensive.

i meant i cant pay it all at once cheers for the advice i just thought as it was there error i wouldnt have to pay 100% of it because its been so long since i move in