Energy Debt - Previous Tennant - British Gas

chelle_bell

My mum has been living abroad for a couple of years, my brother is living in her house (he's paying rent) all the billls are in his name, just the same as a standard private lett. He hasn't been great at paying the gas and electricity. He's not kept up to date wiith payment plans and they want to put in payment meters. Thats not the issue. The issue is - my mum is returning from abroad and wants to live in her house again, my brother can still live in the spare room, but she will be taking control of all the bills again (he will pay bits and pieces of the bills) but she wants everything in her name.

She is aware of my brothers debt and doesn't want anything to do with it, she wants him to receive the letters and pay debt rather than it being added on to her usage (if that makes sense). She may also want to change provider (not decided yet) So where does this stand with my brother, and the fact that he lives in the house. Would they (British Gas) be willing to take out the payment meters, so that my mum can use a different company? Can my brother not pay the British Gas seperately to my mothers bill?

Sorry this is a bit complicated. To ask the question in a simpler term, if some had debt with energy, how does it work with someone moving in?

I realise the payment meters make this a bit more tricky. They aren't in YET, but they will be fitted within the next month. Hoping to sort this before they get fitted, but need options incase that doesn't happen.

Thanks

Joyful

I would think that as long as your brother is still staying at the property the meters will go ahead and have the debt added. Of course if your mum could clear it off and then arrange with your brother to pay her then that would stop the prepayment meter going in.

chelle_bell

hey

No, she isn't able to do that, she doesn't have enough money to cover it.

Any idea what would happen if she went to another supplier. In the same sense that.......if I bought a new house, and there was a payment metre in from the previous people, could I not phone up any company I chose and set it up? Because effectively this is the same as that, my brother wont be in the house for long, just until he finds himself another house.

Joyful

The change of supply will be blocked as long as your brother lives there. They can run checks to see who lives in the property.

chelle_bell

Ah right...do they check through the electoral roll or council tax or something?

So it sounds like she'll just need to wait until he moves out then.

Thanks

macman

If your Mum registers for supply as the new occupier then the existing debt is not hers and not her concern-they will pursue the outgoing occupier. Once she has the account open she can commence a switch.
However she may need to prove the date that she took up occupation.
It would be better to take over the account before the PPM's are installed, otherwise she will be paying up to £120 to switch them back to credit meters. Without which she'll pay a little more on a PPM tariff (same as Standard tariff).

molerat

And the previous occupant's bill will be sent to ........... I reckon there will be no chance of preventing pre-payment meters being fitted whilst the debtor still lives at the address.

chanz4

A flag will be raised to object for debt, but also you cant say he moved out without comitting fraud and land a cifas

ValHaller

molerat wrote: »

And the previous occupant's bill will be sent to ........... I reckon there will be no chance of preventing pre-payment meters being fitted whilst the debtor still lives at the address.

If the supply contract is with mother as a new customer, they cannot rightfully load the meters with the previous customer's debt. So absolutely no point in prepay meters.

Joyful

Energy companies are used to having family or friends try to take on a new contract to get out of paying a debt. For this reason checks will be done and if it is found the son is still in the house they will most likely keep the account in his name.

ValHaller

Joyful wrote: »

Energy companies are used to having family or friends try to take on a new contract to get out of paying a debt. For this reason checks will be done and if it is found the son is still in the house they will most likely keep the account in his name.

This would be wrong - they have a record of mother paying her bills.. Effectively they are denying mother an account. They may have been doing this for years, but I doubt they have a proper legal basis other than bluff and bluster.