Who is liable for the bill

AlisonHarrison

My son and two other guys are renting a flat whilst they are university. The lease was for the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014.
One of the guys had the fuel bills in his name and the others were paying a standing order to him for the fuel.
The fuel bill is in credit and the guy has now moved out and told NPower to stop billing him.
My son telephoned NPower to find out how much in credit the bill was but they would not speak to him because his name was not on the bill.
Now obviously the guy is still responsible for his 1/3 of the bill until the end of the tenancy but given that the liability is joint and several, what action is NPower likely to take over the departing guy?
Clearly the others trusted the guy and perhaps that was foolish, but I am wondering how NPower are likely to deal with it.
I will phone up NPower today to try to find out, but I think that probably I will not get much joy.

JJ_Egan

Its not a joint fuel bill but a single user despite others paying a share .
Doubt if NPower will speak to you as you are not the person named .

Its the guy named on the bill that needs to sort this and if he has terminated his contract then someone needs to open a new contract for continuing supply .
The amount in credit is owed to the guy who was billed .
Unless some written agreement is in place that is how i see it .

Cardew

NPower(or any other company) will not become involved in a third party dispute.


The person named on the bill should have given NPower the final meter readings when he moved out and a bill produced using those readings. If there is either a debt or a credit balance on that bill -
it 'belongs' to that person


Any dispute on the bill, up until the time the named person moved out, is between him and the other occupants - not NPower's problem.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

AlisonHarrison wrote: »

I will phone up NPower today to try to find out, but I think that probably I will not get much joy.

As said, liability is joint and several - but only for those named on the bill. Whoever lives there now should register as the new bill payer - all of them. The previous bill payer gets the previous credit.

Most of us made mistakes as we entered adulthood; put this one down to experience, and certainly don't waste any money phoning npower!

Pagett

AlisonHarrison wrote: »

My son and two other guys are renting a flat whilst they are university. The lease was for the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014.
One of the guys had the fuel bills in his name and the others were paying a standing order to him for the fuel.
The fuel bill is in credit and the guy has now moved out and told NPower to stop billing him.
My son telephoned NPower to find out how much in credit the bill was but they would not speak to him because his name was not on the bill.
Now obviously the guy is still responsible for his 1/3 of the bill until the end of the tenancy but given that the liability is joint and several, what action is NPower likely to take over the departing guy?
Clearly the others trusted the guy and perhaps that was foolish, but I am wondering how NPower are likely to deal with it.
I will phone up NPower today to try to find out, but I think that probably I will not get much joy.

:huh:

How can liability be joint and several when there is only one named account holder?

What makes you think nPower will speak to you about the account when they wouldn't speak yto your son, an occupant?

What will happen if the account holder has informed the supplier he should no longer be the account holder is that nPower will finalise the account with him
(He may need to provide evidence of why he should no lonhger be liable, and if I understanmd you correctly and he is still on the tenancy agreement which is still in force, that mey be difficult)
If nPower do finalise the account with the current account holder, they will eventually write to the address asking for the occupant to contact them to set up a new account (assuming bo one has in the meantime) ... which as nPower would not speak to your son, an occupant, suggests that the current account holder has not contacted nPower.

The account holder remains solely liable to nPower whilst he remains the account holder.

JuneBow

I had a similar issue with NPower a few years ago.
I rent out a property to students, and the lease is for a whole year, but generally, they only occupy the property for term time.
They told NPower that they were not there for the first eight weeks so NPower came after me for the bills.
However, I wrote to NPower to tell them the property was rented out for that period so they made the tenants pay.


Generally the TAs are joint and several, and the tenants sign to say that they will pay the fuel for the period.


He is definitely liable for the bill. How you get the guy to cough up is a different matter.

Pagett

JuneBow wrote: »

I had a similar issue with NPower a few years ago.
I rent out a property to students, and the lease is for a whole year, but generally, they only occupy the property for term time.
They told NPower that they were not there for the first eight weeks so NPower came after me for the bills.
However, I wrote to NPower to tell them the property was rented out for that period so they made the tenants pay.


Generally the TAs are joint and several, and the tenants sign to say that they will pay the fuel for the period.


He is definitely liable for the bill. How you get the guy to cough up is a different matter.

:huh:

As a responsible landlandy, don't you do a formal handover to the tenants and explain everything to them, and go through an ingoing inventory/statement of condition (including meter readings) and get the new tenants to sign it?

Then don't you contact nPower with those agreed readings and ask for a final bill?

AlisonHarrison

I have looked at the lease, and the lease says


All electricity, gas and other fuels consumed during the currency of the tenancy, the telephone rental and cost of all telephone calls made during the tenancy will be paid by the tenant.

So he actually is liable for the fuel.
I telephoned NPower and it was a young girl who I spoke to who said it was "unusual". Surely it cannot be that unusual. How many hundreds of students are there! They all must sign similar leases.
Although he has moved out, he still has a room there and continues to pay rent.
The others are moving out in a couple of weeks, so they could use the same argument and a similar situation to JuneBow's would occur.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I assume the "young girl" (patronising, nice) was only giving you general npower policy information and not account sensitive data, as you are in no way party to the account.

What the lease says is completely immaterial, that just divests responsibility away from the LL. npower have a contract to supply energy, and that contract is with whoever happens to have their name on the bill. This can be changed easily with consenting parties, however it can't be changed retrospectively.

If there is substantive credit to be returned, may I suggest a small claims action, as should always be the case for third party disputes.

undaunted

AlisonHarrison wrote: »

Now obviously the guy is still responsible for his 1/3 of the bill until the end of the tenancy but given that the liability is joint and several, what action is NPower likely to take over the departing guy?

It isn't obvious to me! If he's moved out & wont be using energy in future why should he pay for it? If he still has a room there how can he have "moved out"? Either he's still staying there or he isn't! If he isn't staying there but is paying rent because he has a lease committing him to do so then he isn't going to be using energy so you can't expect him to pay for it, surely.

If he's moved out either they should now be using less or they can get someone else to move in but it seems to me you just need a bill upto date & someone to take over the a/c. The remaining tennants may even be to the good at his expense as he will have contributed to the credit too.

If you're suggesting that he's trying to reclaim the credit then that would seem a matter for pursuing with him - through the courts if necessary - though you may be able to try writing to the supplier stating the facts / tennants details & see whether they decide to protect their interests & not refund whilst "investigating"

Nada666

I don't agree. If he is still in contract and paying rent then he continues to be liable for an equal share of bills (privately amongst the tenants themselves). That is until he has found another occupant or another occupant is found to rent his room. Otherwise you would have X stating he goes home every other weekend, Y stating she stays over with her girlfriend more often than not, Z stating they go home at Christmas a week early, AA stating they have a solid constitution and never use the radiator in their room, AB stating they never use the hob....

In a flat-share you are only free of your equal share of all bills when you no longer pay rent.