advice needed please

hayl233

Hi. I moved into my house last year. I didn't contact any of my utility suppliers as I had no idea who they were, instead I waited for some form of communication from them. My wait resulted in me receiving my bills under the title " the occupier" I then paid these bills to the automated payment phone line, which is the number I was given to ring up and at on. Ive since needed contact with my gas and ekec supplier so they've had my details for a while. I've had no reason to ring united utilities until today when I questioned why my bill had almost doubled since the last one. Once I'd given them my name the operator went on to tell me I should never have paid any previous bills as it was a "dummy account" and instead I should have contacted them to give them my name. I'm on a water meter that is read every six months so they know the house is occupied and bills are being paid. He said the bill would have told me NOT to pay and to contact them, this is ridiculous and the bills said no such thing. He said because they didn't have my name they weren't able to set me a rate, but I've still been getting bills and paid them, what diff does it make whether I pay them under my name or under "the occupier". In short I want to ask am I legally obliged to give them my name?

bluewire

OK here is a question for you then...

Do you have any of the following?
SKY/Virgin
Gas
Electricity
Council Tax
Contract Mobile Phone
Land Line Phone
Broadband

If you have any of the above have you given them your name?

If so why would you give it to them and not United Utilities?

Do they not provide a service too?

Cardew

hayl233 wrote: »

Hi. I moved into my house last year. I didn't contact any of my utility suppliers as I had no idea who they were, instead I waited for some form of communication from them. My wait resulted in me receiving my bills under the title " the occupier" I then paid these bills to the automated payment phone line, which is the number I was given to ring up and at on. Ive since needed contact with my gas and ekec supplier so they've had my details for a while. I've had no reason to ring united utilities until today when I questioned why my bill had almost doubled since the last one. Once I'd given them my name the operator went on to tell me I should never have paid any previous bills as it was a "dummy account" and instead I should have contacted them to give them my name. I'm on a water meter that is read every six months so they know the house is occupied and bills are being paid. He said the bill would have told me NOT to pay and to contact them, this is ridiculous and the bills said no such thing. He said because they didn't have my name they weren't able to set me a rate, but I've still been getting bills and paid them, what diff does it make whether I pay them under my name or under "the occupier". In short I want to ask am I legally obliged to give them my name?

Welcome to the forum.

No! you can ask for your water to be cut off;)

By using water you have entered a legally binding deemed contract with the water company.

Take the scenario where you do a 'moonlight flit' owing £hundreds - they cannot take action to recover that money from 'The Occupier.'

When you do eventually leave the property there will be a final bill that will need to be forwarded to you at your next address. How do they address that bill?

P.S.
"they weren't able to set me a rate," no idea what that means!
If you are metered there is only a rate for the property which is published on their website.

samsmoot

hayl233 wrote: »

In short I want to ask am I legally obliged to give them my name?

in short: NO!