Other 'tenant' refusing to pay half the bills

G_M

Mrs_Beatson wrote: »

The gas board has estimated this outstanding amount based on previous use.

x

You can always dispute this, especially if the previous usage on which their estimate is based was a previous tenant's (they may have kept the central heating on higher than you do for instance).

So you can negotiate the amount with the gas company.

Frankly, if you are sharing with someone who refuses to pay their half of bills, either get her out (hard - she is a tenant of the landlord rather than your lodger by the sound of it) or get yourself out - if/when you can.

This house share is already in crisis - it can only end in more tears!

As for the debt, if/when you leave, sue her for her half. It will be clear to a judge you were living together, consuming the gas together, and therefore should be paying together.

getmore4less

Shared houses with shared bills are nightmare.

Taking on a utility in your own name is always a very big risk.

princeofpounds

I dont know what the legal situation is on the bill. Perhaps the utilities board can help there.

However, the situation between the tenants is another matter.

The person with their name on the bill is responsible to the utility company. If they have the right to make this charge, they can sue her. That's clear so far.

If the lady is living in the house and paying rent she DOES have a tenancy agreement. It may be verbal but it will be a statutory AST (unless she is a lodger of the tenants rather than a tenant of the landlord). But this is somewhat incidental to the main issue.

However, there is a further legal relationship between the tenants. Rarely is this written, but a court will also consider verbal contracts, and consider people's ACTIONS as evidence of an intent to contract. And typically co- tenants would be assumed to have some kind of responsibility to each other for household bills, given they all form that household.

So basically what I am saying is that if a tenant A lives with tenant B, and tenant B uses half the gas and pays A for their share of gas until a huge bill arrives, then tenant B would have a very hard time persuading a judge there was not an implied contract to share the bills 50/50.

So small claims court is an option. It will help if there is some evidence of her residency in the house and evidence of how the bills have been shared to date. The chance of success would depend on he quality of that evidence. But even the threat of small claims might produce a result.

SAHD_Jim

Personally I'd fight it in court. Your friend claims to have a verbal agreement and it is logical that someone sharing a tenancy is liable for half the bills. If this woman claims it is not her, then it must be the person who still holds the tenancy agreement. I doubt that this person is going to back this woman's claims that she is not liable as they could end up being liable instead.

Then again, I'm no lawyer, lol!

Edit:Ignore my ramble, prince of pounds beat me to it with a far better response, lol.

SAHD_Jim

getmore4less wrote: »

Shared houses with shared bills are nightmare.

Taking on a utility in your own name is always a very big risk.

Absolutely. Moving forward, there needs to be 2 names on the contract with the provider, both tenants.

t0rt0ise

Two names on the utility provider will make little difference in the end because each is liable jointly and severally so you still end up with one refusing to pay and the company seeking the full amount from the other. Of course the small claims court would then help but actually getting the money out of the other party is often impossible.