Shared Bill ? My Rights

macman

shekell wrote: »

It seems Really unfair that my son who has already paid more than his share should pay for somebody else. The other lads have said they will not pay any more towards this bill and i think they are right. As e.on have record of my sons payments they cant deny he has paid his portion. I cant see how any court can rule against my son.

Very easily, because he is jointly and severally liable for the entire bill, not for any 'portion' of it.
Not 'fair,' but that is the reality of the agreement he made.
The supplier doesn't care who pays, they just come after the first person on the account that they can find, which happens to be him. If he doesn't pay then his credit reference will be trashed for 6 years. His remedy, since he is still in contact with the offending party, is to take out a action against him via the small claims process for recovery of the overdue amount. Nothing to do with Eon.

advantix

As has already been stated, it is a third party dispute which EON can chase any / all of the people named on the account. This is also one of the reasons why EON are now only putting one name on an account / bill. The person named on the account is liable to pay and it is up to that person how / if they get the money off any other person living in the property.

Cardew

shekell wrote: »

I really don,t know what to advise my son to do here as if i help him pay i am condoning the forcing of someone elses debt upon him which is clearly wrong.
Should he should go to the court with evidence of payment and if they rule in e.ons favour offer a nominal sum per month ?? The person who wont pay was someone the landlord forced on the rest of them they didn,t even know him.

If it were my son, I would pay the £200 to prevent his credit record being trashed - after checking that it isn't already trashed over this affair.

Then take the non-payer to the Small Claims court. It is very easy and informal and the small amount of costs will be included in the award. Most people settle the claim when papers are served.

macman

This assumes, of course, that the miscreant has any assets. If he doesn't, it's a waste of time.

Cardew

macman wrote: »

This assumes, of course, that the miscreant has any assets. If he doesn't, it's a waste of time.

Agreed, but it is surprising how many people will find a small sum like £200 rather than go to court.

shekell

Wywth wrote: »

Why don't you just advise him to read the advice already posted in this thread? :cool:

Err that would be because i am finding it difficult to reconcile paying for somebody elses electric !! please dont bother commenting on my threads again.

shekell

It seems we will have to pay this bill. It,s a bitter pill as we are struggling to get by at the moment although we all work.
I am glad that MOST of you agree that it is unfair as i feel that as there are three names on the account each should legally be required to pay only their share.
Thank you again for your help

Bennifred

It is a bitter pill - sorry your boy got caught like that.:(
I'm hugely relieved that DS3's current landlady collects bill money from each of the house-sharers up front, so avoiding this problem (DS1 ended up in the same position as your son - live and learn!)

macman

shekell wrote: »

It seems we will have to pay this bill. It,s a bitter pill as we are struggling to get by at the moment although we all work.
I am glad that MOST of you agree that it is unfair as i feel that as there are three names on the account each should legally be required to pay only their share.
Thank you again for your help

You didn't originally ask what is 'fair' though. You wanted to know what his liability was, and have been told numerous times that he is jointly and severally liable or the whole bill.
Unfortunately the law is totally at odds with what you would like it to be in this case.