Nightmare Situation with Electric Bill and Student House.

macman

To repeat: there are no 'shares' of the bill-you are all jointly and severally liable.
How you divide that up between you is a third party dispute, and of no interest to the supplier.
Pay the total due and then sort it out with the ex-flatmate if you can find them.

dogshome

From my reading of your Post, the one who looked after the Elec is now holding 4/5ths of the cash needed to pay the bill - Send it to the supplier now Doing this lessens the debt so far as the supplier is concerned and puts a spanner in the works of those who want thier contribution back

It's obvious the Nightmare guy is making some efforts not to be found, and as advised in other posts the supplier can after anyone to get thier money, but at least they will only be chasing for 20% of the bill

macman

No, send the full amount now and then pursue the errant non-payer if you can. It's 3m overdue and time is not on your side.
If I calculate correctly, it's an extra £16.66 each for the 5 good guys. Not really an amount worth trashing your credit record for.

DannyWhoWorks

Hey Guys, Okay what I have managed to do is find the address of the 'nightmare' housemate and managed to contact the electric company and ask for the bill to be sent to that address; (I am not sure where it was sent before?). I have contacted this guy through social media but no reply. Am I right in thinking, that now the electric company who now has this address for someone on the bill (and no one else's as far as I am aware) will 'chase' this person? (And hoping he then comes to us with his share so we can then pay it in full, we are not looking to get away with paying, just want him to be 'pressured' into paying his share).

keystone

DannyWhoWorks wrote: »

Hey Guys, Okay what I have managed to do is find the address of the 'nightmare' housemate and managed to contact the electric company and ask for the bill to be sent to that address; (I am not sure where it was sent before?). I have contacted this guy through social media but no reply. Am I right in thinking, that now the electric company who now has this address for someone on the bill (and no one else's as far as I am aware) will 'chase' this person? (And hoping he then comes to us with his share so we can then pay it in full, we are not looking to get away with paying, just want him to be 'pressured' into paying his share).

It might be a good idea if you looked up the meaning of "jointly and severably liable" your post sorta indicates you don't have a clue what it means nor have you understood what others have been saying to you. You don't have much chance of geting it sorted the way you want to. The electric co hold all the cards. You don't hold any and are running out of time. Your man "in charge" really should pay, as a minimum, what has been collected already as a part payment. Actually what you should think about is paying the whole bill, send your nighmare former flatmate a Letter Before Action requiring him to cough up and if he ignores it enter a claim at Moneyclaim Online. I bet he jumps pretty quickly when court papers land on his doormat.

Cheers

macman

As above, After 3m they won't bother chasing any more, they'll just trash your credit record. Use some common sense and pay what is owing. It may not be 'fair'. but it is your only sensible option.
You can chase him all you like once it's paid, he won't know (or care) that you've paid it anyway.
I do not understand why you are witholding the 5/6ths of the arrears that you have already collected?

Nada666

Carfal wrote: »

Had this when I was a student as well. One person decided she would leave the house before the end of term and 'forgot' to leave her share of the leccy bill. The two of us remaining went to the landlady who paid the outstanding balance and deducted it from the non-payer's deposit.

(I may be wrong about the following but I think this is the case.) Although that is a sensible solution it is not, unfortunately, legal. If the errant tenant complains the landlord is liable to a large fine for not returning part of the deposit - although landlords can steal hundreds of pounds from deposits for running a hoover round the place because the fuel bill is none of the landlord's business they may not use deposits to pay the balance.