Changing gas bill to partners name... Is this legal?

Anon1984

I am just wondering if the following would be legal:

I have a prepayment gas meter which takes lots of money for debt, it's unsustainable I can't even put the heating on anymore. I want to pay less until I get a reliable job but the company doesn't want to hear it.

My bf has just moved in...

Can I get my bf to phone up to say he's just moved in to try and get the meter out so it will be a credit account again ( he has good credit). Then I can pay off my gas debt separately.

He is happy to do it if its not illegal...

Thanks for your help.

molerat

It could be possible but they may want to see a rental contract or such in his name. If he has no history with the supplier they may want a large deposit to change to credit meter. You would still be responsible for the debt and I would think they would want the money back at a higher rate than you are paying on a prepayment meter, the amount they can collect that way is limited. Where would they send the bill to, might set alarm bells ringing. I would say not illegal but a bit dodgy.

Anon1984

molerat wrote: »

It could be possible but they may want to see a rental contract or such in his name. If he has no history with the supplier they may want a large deposit to change to credit meter. You would still be responsible for the debt and I would think they would want the money back at a higher rate than you are paying on a prepayment meter, the amount they can collect that way is limited. Where would they send the bill to, might set alarm bells ringing. I would say not illegal but a bit dodgy.

I was thinking I'd get the bill sent to my mums house a few minutes away and set up a regular monthly payment with the supplier. I'm hoping to pay the debt off sooner as the credit meter will be cheaper, and as I'd be splitting the bill with the bf I can put that money towards the debt. At the moment if I put £10 on the meter £7 gets taken for the debt.

I think this is way too much is there any sort of letter I could send to the supplier to make them reduce this?

macman

If you 'move out' then the supplier will want the entire debt repaying at once.
A PPM is not vastly more expensive, it's the same as the supplier's Standard rate tariff. Using a credit meter with an online discount tariff will save you no more than about 6%. What makes it seem expensive is the amount of debt you have accrued.
Finally, there will probably be a charge for installing a credit meter.
If you can't manage the existing debt, going back to a credit meter is the worst possible option-your debt will increase. How much is the current debt?

tattycath

When I used to live in a rental property it had quantum meters. I asked for them to be removed and ordinary meters put it and they didn't charge me anything.

Cardew

Firstly pre-pay meter tariffs are not much more expensive than other tariffs these days. So your 'cunning plan' will not achieve much, unless you intend to pay back your debt at a slower rate.

Secondly I suspect that if you 'move' to your mother's house they will just pass the outstanding debt to a Debt Collection agency.

The difficulty comes when your bf wants the debt removed from the pre-pay meter, and requests a credit meter, then to put it bluntly your are both in a conspiracy. Not that it would ever be a 'police' matter.

McKneff

If your BF is moving in, surely life will become a lot less expensive when 2 are sharing

Charge him normal rent and see what money you have spare at the end of each week/month and pay that off the arrears as fast as you can.

Get it cleared and then get an account put into your bfs name.

Much easier and lesss messy that way. .

Anon1984

Hi thanks for all your feedback. I'll just leave it then, I'll keep phoning the company till I get someone sympathetic that will actually lower the weekly collection rate and pay of extra where I can. It probably costs so much because I have a rubbish inefficient heating system.

Anon1984

macman wrote: »

If you 'move out' then the supplier will want the entire debt repaying at once.
A PPM is not vastly more expensive, it's the same as the supplier's Standard rate tariff. Using a credit meter with an online discount tariff will save you no more than about 6%. What makes it seem expensive is the amount of debt you have accrued.
Finally, there will probably be a charge for installing a credit meter.
If you can't manage the existing debt, going back to a credit meter is the worst possible option-your debt will increase. How much is the current debt?

The current debt is approx 1k from over a year ago when I was severely depressed. due to a mess up on the supplier side they managed to turn the meter into a credit one when I topped up one day. Although I don't know how it got to be so much. I was never home and was staying at my mothers for support.

chanz4

send proof of benefits and they will lower it, I would advice against your idea of false change of tenancy though unless you want a cifas.

spiro

Anon1984 wrote: »

At the moment if I put £10 on the meter £7 gets taken for the debt.

Normally debt recovery is a set amount per week and not a percentage of what you put on the meter. Check the meter and it will tell you the debt recovery rate. If it is £7pw think of this as a very cheap interest free loan over nearly 3 years.

In terms of BF moving in get him to pay for half the gas consumption (won't increase much if anything as a result of 2 rather than 1 person), that will make it easier for you to afford to repay debt.