Defaulted on a Bill... When Bills Were Included in Rent?

gemnomnom

Hi all, in a bit of a pickle here.

My OH was living in an all-bills-included bedsit from Jan 2013-July 2013. So, the water account should've been in the landlords name.

Just checked his credit report and you can imagine the :eek: when we saw from May 2014 a default of £620 with YW.

I've been talking with a YW representative who can confirm there was an account there from April 2013. So toward the end of his time living there. And it is now with a DCA, Rockford.

The rep advised he has to write in to YW with his tenancy agreement (doubt we still have a copy) to prove it wasn't his responsibility to pay the water bill there.

The rep was also trying to fob me off to speak to Rockford about this, which is very counter-intuitive and I don't think I will do! After all, my OH does not have a debt with them. So my question is:

Is the best way to remove this default off his credit file and stop action with Rockford to do as she says and send a copy of our agreement in?

I don't actually know what else to do. So, does anyone else have experience with this?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

EDIT: Also just thought I'd point out we were 100% up to date on rent, in fact the landlord owes us rent (due to Housing Benefit overpayment).

GingerBob_3

I'm just wondering how Yorkshire Water had sufficient information (full name, DoB) about him to be able to report him the CRAs ??

InsideInsurance

You dont need full details to report to CRAs, the CRAs also use fuzzy logic to do matching hence you occasionally get father/sons with the same names living together mixed up despite evidently different DOBs


Years ago when I worked in the call centre for an electricity company we were always told to get everyone adult in a properties name as "legally" they were all jointly/ severally liable for the useage and that by having all names rather than just the person that phoned helped track bad debtors down, particularly in multi occupancy properties like student digs

I have no idea what the basis of this "law" was, if it applies to Water or if it was made up by the training people in the company. If it does exist however and apply to all utilities then it may well be they can pursue him and he'd then have a counter claim against the landlord for their breach of contract.

gemnomnom

Thank you both for your replies. We are still living in Yorkshire and thus supplied by Yorkshire Water. That is one possible way they could have tracked him.

Other than that, could the (less than reputable) landlord possibly have supplied his details?

Either way, think I need to apply (somewhere? somehow?) for a duplicate tenancy agreement and post that off to Yorkshire Water.

I suppose it's a blessing in disguise because my OH & I were putting off chasing up a rent overpayment that the landlord owed us! So we can get everything sorted now. Though this has made the problem even less appealing to tackle...

GingerBob_3

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You dont need full details to report to CRAs, the CRAs also use fuzzy logic to do matching hence you occasionally get father/sons with the same names living together mixed up despite evidently different DOBs

That doesn't surprise me in the least. And of course Experian think it's marvellous that a water company now reports to the CRAs. This sort of thing wouldn't happen if they didn't.

As for mixing up fathers and sons, that must happen all the time with me, given the names of me and my sons!

gemnomnom

Update, for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation:

Rang the letting agents today, the receptionist said she would post a copy of the tenancy agreement out BUT given our previous dealings with them I would be surprised indeed if it actually happened first time.

Stupidly I admitted on the phone (nerves or something) that it was because of Yorkshire Water chasing a bill. Are tenancy agreements just word documents that can be changed? Would I have any rights if they edited the agreement to exclude water bills being included in the rent?

I also asked for an update for the rent overpayment we made! I asked her to email back either today or tomorrow. Am I being too lenient? Should I just small claims it? I wonder.

Anyway, once I receive a copy of the tenancy agreement, I am going to post it out to Yorkshire Water.

I am also going to complain something serious about the customer service I received from they. The CS online chat rep honestly couldn't give a **** about this bill which has been wrongly put in our name. No empathy, and no sense either! (e.g. Why are we only finding out about this now? Was someone else paying our bill all this time? Obviously not.)