Bill over a year after moving out

m-rea

Hi,

I've just received a letter out of the blue from the letting agent of a flat my partner and I moved out of over a year ago.

They say they have been contacted by the management company for the property to say there is an outstanding bill for electricity for £720 for whilst we were living at the property. It asks us to contact someone at the management company and pay the bill, but provides no further details.

Our tenancy contract says that we are responsible for utility bills, which is fair enough. When we moved in we were told the service charge covered the water bills, but we would have to pay the electricity. However, we did not find out until after we moved in that the electricity for the property was supplied through a management company. The management company were given our details by the letting agent, but despite our efforts to find out what the arrangements were for paying any bills, we never received one during the 14 months we lived there.

According to the letter I received today, the reason for the lack of bills is that the management company only bill for electricity every two years. This seems incredibly unreasonable, particularly given that it was never explained to us that the electricity for the property provided under a non-standard arrangement and we have no idea how the bill has been calculated.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation? We do not intend to pay anything without further information and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

undaunted

I don't really believe that they they only bill electricity every two years - too many tennants could move in that time and even if they didn't why would they want to let it go so long? - and agree it would be unreasonable to do so in general. It seems more likely some mistake has been made.

That said it's also highly unreasonable of you to think you can just not pay for your electricity at all & without any reason to dispute the bill!

I assume you read meters when you moved in & out? If so you should have a good idea of what is due and I suggest you pick up the phone, ask for a detailed bill, and then pay up.

Wywth

m-rea wrote: »

Hi,

I've just received a letter out of the blue from the letting agent of a flat my partner and I moved out of over a year ago.

They say they have been contacted by the management company for the property to say there is an outstanding bill for electricity for £720 for whilst we were living at the property. It asks us to contact someone at the management company and pay the bill, but provides no further details.

Our tenancy contract says that we are responsible for utility bills, which is fair enough. When we moved in we were told the service charge covered the water bills, but we would have to pay the electricity. However, we did not find out until after we moved in that the electricity for the property was supplied through a management company. The management company were given our details by the letting agent, but despite our efforts to find out what the arrangements were for paying any bills, we never received one during the 14 months we lived there.

According to the letter I received today, the reason for the lack of bills is that the management company only bill for electricity every two years. This seems incredibly unreasonable, particularly given that it was never explained to us that the electricity for the property provided under a non-standard arrangement and we have no idea how the bill has been calculated.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation? We do not intend to pay anything without further information and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

So you lived in a flat for 14 months and didn't pay for any electricity even though you knew you would be responsible for it. :eek:

Now you still don't plan to pay for what you used. :eek::eek:

You go for it, my dear! :cool:

m-rea

Thanks for the responses, but I said I didn't intend to pay without further information. Not that I don't intend to pay at all, so I don't think I'm being highly unreasonable. I'm just asking if anyone else has experienced anything similar.

You'll also see that I said we had tried to pursue the management company for a bill whilst we were living in the property and was simply wondering where we stood considering we had done this and not had any response.

Unfortunately, as the electricity system wasn't standard we didn't have a meter for our flat, so we have no idea what we actually used.

paulsad

Depending on what electric was used for at the property it averages out £51 per month so not unreasonable