Atlantic electric - 6 year old debt - Advice needed!

NumbersMan87

Hello all,

First time using this forum so any help is very much appreciated. I am after advice on how I should proceed with the debt. The story is as follows:

Me and my friend at uni rented a flat from Sept 08 - Feb 09 and paid all the electric bills that were sent to us running to 2010 using various different methods. e.g. my bank, my dad’s bank etc. And as far as I was aware I paid everything we owed (which came on three separate bills).

Last week I received after all this time a bill from them saying I owe for electric from July 08 - Oct 09 and the total came to just over £900!. The bill its self has mine and my friends name along with two other tenants I am unsure of.

Not only had we been charged for the period that doesn't relate to our stay there but also they have failed to acknowledge any sort of payment we have made. The problem is how I should respond to this considering the follow:

1. All old bills were I attached my payment documentation have all been binned around 6 months ago = (.
2. The letting agency we used have now been passed over to another company and they are unwilling to help get any sort of lease agreement proving dates.
3. I can only prove I have paid half of what I have with my own bank account details as my dad has passed away so I can no longer get old copies of statements.

If I contacted them with this information would this be enough for them to stop harassing me and unchain this debt which current sits wrongly on my name? Fortunately it hasn’t impacted my credit rating yet… but I have a horrible feeling it may do soon and will impair any chance of me getting a mortgage in a years’ time.

Many thanks

macman

If the billing relates to a period when you were not in occupation then all you have to do is send a copy of the tenancy agreement proving so.
Did you take a final meter reading and submit it requesting account closure on the day you vacated? If not, you may well owe them something, which can be pursued for up to 6 years, which is why they're billing this now.
£900 is a large amount, which indicates that you possibly did not take and submit regular reads, but simply paid on estimated billing, with the inevitable huge catch-up bill.
All the tenants at the time are jointly and severally liable, unfortunately they've caught up with you first and so will pursue you for the full £900.
How can you be 'unsure' about the other tenants-do you not know who was living in the house at the time?

dogshome

The post is a bit confusing - The OP seems to have moved out of shared accomodation in Feb 09, but continued to pay Energy bills in 2010 ? !

This debt hinges on the length of the lease for this flat, and wether or not the OP as an individual moved out when it ended, or before.

If moved before the lease end, and did not make arrangements for one of the other sharers to take over the account from , then I'm afraid he/she is stuck with debt.

If they moved out at end their lease in Feb 09, then they are in the clear but have to prove it to Atlantic - Evidence of living somewhere else from Feb 09 onward ?