Student house with 4 tenants, which provider allows all names on bill?

rtho782

Hi all,

I'm helping my girlfriend set up bills on her new student house that she shares with 3 others.

Water went easy, the landlord had already phoned them and all names were on the bill.

nPower, Electricity and Gas, would not allow more than one name, and had picked one they had decided to use for a deemed contract, while there is no "lead tenant" or similar on the tenancy agreement so I think they would struggle to justify to a court why they had picked that person to pay the whole bill alone (as the other three could refuse to pay and there would be nothing the one could do)

It seems no suppliers want to put 4 names on a bill, or address a bill to "The Occupiers".

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Richie-from-the-Boro

Insist - tell them 4 names, make sure every utility [take no ones word - check yourself] company has every tenants names on the bill, send them a copy of your Tenancy Agreement for proof of occupancy. If only one person is on the tenancy agreement and you or your girlfriend are that person. Cancel everything and run for the hills. These threads are filled with hundreds of so called 'best friends' who became invisible when cash is due. As a last resort a monthly Payment Plan for each utility, paid on time by all, that way you avoid forking out for 3 people for a max of 4 weeks [12] instead of 3 people for 52 weeks [156].

GwylimT

Have you looked into opening a business account? My son did this in his second year when they moved into a house, it means all bills are in the name of the business account (fee free for two years) and all the tenants names are on the account. This also means no one has to use their personal bank account for all of the bill money to go into, as if that is the case and someone doesn't pay up it doesn't effect them as much as they wont have a charge on their personal account or be short of money until said person pays up. Their account is with natwest.

Wywth

rtho782 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm helping my girlfriend set up bills on her new student house that she shares with 3 others.

Water went easy, the landlord had already phoned them and all names were on the bill.

nPower, Electricity and Gas, would not allow more than one name, and had picked one they had decided to use for a deemed contract, while there is no "lead tenant" or similar on the tenancy agreement so I think they would struggle to justify to a court why they had picked that person to pay the whole bill alone (as the other three could refuse to pay and there would be nothing the one could do)

It seems no suppliers want to put 4 names on a bill, or address a bill to "The Occupiers".

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

nPower allow more than one name on a gas and/or electricity bill. (not sure if they allow 4)

It doesn't really matter how many names are on the bill - any restriction will at worst just restrict the supplier from chasing others. No energy supplier wants to get involved in arguments between hosuemates about who owes what.

I don't think you would have any issue pursuing any housemate yourself through court that didn't pay their fair share, but if you really want belt & braces approach, why not create a written and signed agreement amongst you all, and each hold a copy?

Cardew

Agree with the above.

Utility companies simply will not get involved in 'third party disputes'. e.g who owes what, from when.

If one of the four named on the bill 'did a runner' the other 3 would still have to pay for the whole bill under the 'jointly and severally' liable rule. They will not accept 75% payment of the bill in full settlement and chase the 'runner'. It is perfectly possible that the runner gave his share to another in the house to pay.

The same would apply if you put an overseas student as the sole name on the bill(knowing he/she would be going home after graduation and be untraceable)

We have countless cases on MSE of student disputes about Utility bills. e.g. Student A has his girlfriend staying every night so should pay more. Student B stays at girlfriend's place every night so should pay less. Student C stays in the house during vacations, and doesnt go home etc etc.

Di_B

rtho782 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm helping my girlfriend set up bills on her new student house that she shares with 3 others.

Water went easy, the landlord had already phoned them and all names were on the bill.

nPower, Electricity and Gas, would not allow more than one name, and had picked one they had decided to use for a deemed contract, while there is no "lead tenant" or similar on the tenancy agreement so I think they would struggle to justify to a court why they had picked that person to pay the whole bill alone (as the other three could refuse to pay and there would be nothing the one could do)
It seems no suppliers want to put 4 names on a bill, or address a bill to "The Occupiers".

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Why not just get a contract agreed between the tennants? If a genuine house share this should suffice?
I used to do this and it was simple and worked - I don't see there is a probem?

Cardew

Di_B wrote: »

Why not just get a contract agreed between the tennants? If a genuine house share this should suffice?
I used to do this and it was simple and worked - I don't see there is a probem?

Well there have scores of similar disputes over Utility bills particularly in student properties.

What sort of contract?

How is it enforced?

Occupant A claims to have given occupant B his share of bill - occupant B denies that claim!

One occupant just disappears(abroad?) and is untraceable.

ExtraMask

npower don't allow more than one name on bills when setting up an account. Some accounts will have it because it used to be allowed a couple of years ago.

The main reason is to ensure there's one person liable for payment if it ever needs to go to a debt collector. If there's 4 people there, you'll need to establish a lead person then make sure the rest are paying their share.

The majority of landlords require a lump sum to cover any expenses if the tenants just leave. If there are unpaid bills at the property the landlord won't sign the release of the money so it's in everyone's best interests to pay the bills.

vickyanne_2

Be very careful, when my son was a student and shared a house with 3 others they all agreed to be responsible for paying a bill each and when a bill arrived they each paid their share to that person who paid it - or said they did! Months after he left we got a letter on the 23rd dec saying that as the electricity bill hadn't been paid bailiffs would be coming to our house - he wasn't living here but the landlord had our address and passed it to npower! His name was never n the bill but as it hadn't been paid the landlord gave then everyones details and they came after him just because his name came first alphabetically.

Naively they hadn't checked that the bills had been paid or got receipts for the payments given to each other towards their share of the bills - they were frends so it would be ok wouldn't it????

After many phone calls npower accepted 1/4 of the bill from us - paid by cheque - I wasn't giving them debit card details and I got them to send a letter in advance saying that if I paid that they would class it as full and final settlement of his liability. They then pursued the others one by one. What got me was that the account was never in his name, only hers but hey said he'd obviously used it as his name was on the tenancy.

I have no advice as to how best to manage a situation -just be very careful and trust no one!

Cardew

vickyanne,

Your son was very lucky that NPower accepted payment 25% of the bill.

There have been scores of similar situations on these boards where the Utility company have point blank refused to accept an individual's share of the bill; they insist on the full amount. Your son's solution is the first case I have read.

It is absolutely standard practice that companies will not get involved in 'Third party disputes' and any of the tenants are 'jointly and severally liable' for the whole amount.

The company don't know how many were in the house, and for how long(some could have left). For all they know the others had handed their share of the bill to your son and he has made a profit(I am not implying that was the case)

vickyanne_2

Didn't realise we were so lucky. The girl in question pocketed all their money and only paid for the first few months despite them living there for 2 years . They had changed to npower just after moving in and it was put in her name but they got everyone's names from the landlord.

I was really annoyed to get the bailiffs letter out of the blue, they'd obviously not sent any other bills/letters or I'd have had them. My son knew nothing about this.