Help! Student House Gas Bill left unpaid...

guinesrules

Hi,
If possible i'd like some advice on what to do. Myself and another housemate moved out of my student house in Nottingham in February 2010, however the tenancy was until July 2010 and two of my other house mates still lived there until July 2010.
When we first moved in, we set up the gas with npower and although I originally called them, we put all of our names on the account and when bills can through they were addressed to all of us.
I received a letter through the post in my new house a couple of weeks ago from npower stating that we owe £372.25 for the period of May 2010- Sept 2010 plus an extra £7 for them having to trace me.
I have called npower and they said they have nothing on the account to say that the other three were ever on the account and it's under my name so it's my responsibility to pay it.
I have managed to contact two of my housemates and they are saying they will pay their quarter, but the other housemate is just ignoring us. I've messaged her on facebook and she's deleted me, i've text and called her but she's ignoring me.
What shall I do?
I have her home address and phone number, but will npower contact her or will they expect me to pay her amount if I can't get hold of her?
I'm just so sick of having to sort it out and I wish i'd never been the one to ring npower in the first place.
I'd be grateful for anyones advice....

savemoney

They will pursue the bill payer any 3rd parties involved will be down to the bill payers to pursue them its not down to energy companies to solve peoples share of what they owe

anniecave

savemoney wrote: »

They will pursue the bill payer any 3rd parties involved will be down to the bill payers to pursue them its not down to energy companies to solve peoples share of what they owe

In some cases they will accept shares from individual people. Do you still have a copy of the tenancy agreement? Does it include all your names?

If so, you could offer to pay only the 3/4 only if they agree that this settles your responsibility and that they will pursue the other housemate for the other 1/4. If you have contact details of any sort for the other housemate, then even better.

Put that in writing as a formal offer. See what they come back with. The worst that can happen is they say no.

If they do say no, then put in a complaint to them.

If they still say no, the next thing I would do is complain to the ombudsman.

Good luck!

Cardew

You are all jointly and severally responsible and they can chase one individual.

Pay the bill and take the other person to the small claims court. It is very easy - and cheap and the judge will probably get her to pay your expenses. The chances are she will pay anyway when she gets notice of court action.

undaunted

As has been said already you may have to pursue her through the Courts if necessary. Other than that however

Do you have evidence that the others were specified names on the account?

Did you notify Npower in February that you had left the property?

Utilityanonymous

My advice would be to get a copy of your tenancy agreement... I believe that will have all of your name's on? Also the energ company should have notes on your account showing you calling to advise you'd moved in and you adding your name. The tenancy agreement should show all of you and all of your respnsibility for the site, furthermore if you used a shared account, send bank statements showing you all paying into the pot. Get a letter from your Landlord confirming you personally, left in February and so on. You're a domestic customer, the energy company will struggle to take you further with such effort on your part, they can add the other's names with enough justification and can pursue them.

Cardew

Utilityanonymous wrote: »

My advice would be to get a copy of your tenancy agreement... I believe that will have all of your name's on? Also the energ company should have notes on your account showing you calling to advise you'd moved in and you adding your name. The tenancy agreement should show all of you and all of your respnsibility for the site, furthermore if you used a shared account, send bank statements showing you all paying into the pot. Get a letter from your Landlord confirming you personally, left in February and so on. You're a domestic customer, the energy company will struggle to take you further with such effort on your part, they can add the other's names with enough justification and can pursue them.

Your suggestion would be helpful if the Utility companies agreed with you - but they don't.

The principle has been established in thousands of cases, it doesn't matter how many people's names are on the bill - as stated above all occupants are 'jointly and severally' liable for the bill. They are, in law, allowed to pursue one person for the whole bill amount; and that is just what they do - which is why the OP has the bill.

If you think about it, it would be impossible for a utility company to know who had moved out when, who had paid whom, etc etc

thepurplegoldfish

Personally I'd pay the whole amount owed just to have it settled as not to cause damage to my credit rating and to avoid nPower selling on the debt to a collection company. These things can be a pain and collection agencies add their own 'costs' on.

In regards the 1 person with holding their share, I'd pursue them through the small claims court (as others have said).