Ex-flatmate never took a meter reading - now there's a huge bill

uphanleyduck

I moved out of my old flat a few weeks ago, my flatmate who is staying in the flat closed the account with the meter readings I took at the time. It now turns out that these are the first readings he gave since moving in, so our final bill is over £250.

Obviously I'm quite annoyed as he had told me we were in credit, but the last bill was over £140 in debt. He's obviously not been managing the utilities as he said he would. I have been looking after and paying the phone and broadband whilst I lived there, whilst he agreed to look after the and pay the utilities.

The supplier has said that we can pay off over 6 months, but I'm livid that I have to pay out due to his stupidity. I guess it's my fault for not checking up on him, but we're both adults so I thought he could handle it!

The bill is only in his name, but I'm not the kind of person to just leave him with it all. I just wondered if there's any other way of paying out! Probably not I guess, but worth asking!

Cheers.

Premier_2

If you were sharing the flat, you have to accept your share of responsibility for the bills.

If the money is rightfully owed, then it will have to be paid. Legally if it's the other tenant's sole name on the bill, only he is responsible to the supplier for it (but he will almost certainly ask you for your share)

As two adults, you should both have realised that equal sharing of all bills you both use the services of is the correct way forward, not he pays the leccy and you pay the broadband.

Broadband is often a fixed monthly cost, yet electricity varies depending on consumption. By you absolving yourself from the cost of the electricity you were using, where is the responsibility on you to minimise your use? Perhaps that is why the final bill is so large? Oh well, you'll know for the future.

scheming_gypsy

uphanleyduck wrote: »

The supplier has said that we can pay off over 6 months, but I'm livid that I have to pay out due to his stupidity. I guess it's my fault for not checking up on him, but we're both adults so I thought he could handle it!

To be honest you'd have had to pay it anyway as it was the bill so you'd have just paid it in smaller amounts when the bills came in after giving a reading.

Although you can never trust adults with bills. I lived with two mates, me and the second used to give the third our share of the bill money instead of chasing him; and he'd pay the bill.
It was only 8 months later when we found a note from the debt collectors after they'd been round and he let them in to calculate what was worth taking.. he'd not been paying the council tax and hidden the court letters and final demands etc. To top it all off, everything that was worth money in the house was mine; so if they took it all he wouldn't have lost anything.