New apartment...Bill from previous tenant

mcarlin

I moved into a new apartment with my girlfriend at the beginning of November (our tenancy started on the 6th). It's my first time, but my girlfriend has lived on her own for about four years now. We opened an account with Spark for gas and electricity; however, shortly after moving in we began receiving letters from Southern Electric, addressed to 'The Occupier', stating that a gas bill to the value of £10.75 is owed between a period towards the end of October - about two weeks before our tenancy even started.

I ignored and binned the first couple of letters because they were blatantly -- or so I assumed -- not addressed to us due to having only just moved in and given when our tenancy agreement was valid from. However, two further letters received by SSE I have kept and opened (I am not sure of the legal implications of this so hopefully it is not a problem) and they are demanding an overdue payment or else consequences.

The bill is a poultry sum, so if I need to pay it I will, but it's the principal of the matter for which I would rather not.

Ideally I'd call them up, explain the situation and provide proof of our new tenancy to make them go away. I don't really know where we stand or what the best course of action is, so any help will be appreciated!

Pixie5740

You are the occupier so it's perfectly fine for you to open letters address to the occupier. If the bill is for usage before your tenancy started you could forward the letters to your LL or LA as the LL will be liable for the utilities during the period between tenancies. Also contact Spark and tell them you weren't the occupier for the period on the bill.

Marktheshark

If they are addresses to the occupier then you have no contract with them.
Do not give them your name, write no contract return to sender and put them back in the post box.
Only start worrying if they send a bill in your name.

kinger101

You are "the occupier" so the letters were addressed to you. You should have opened them. Phone them up, and tell them when you moved in, and give meter readings for these dates.

It's possible it relates to a short period between changeover from SSE to your current supplier. When you move it, you become the customer of the existing supplier. Changing suppliers does not occur instantaneously. However, if it's not your bill, they'll chase someone else for it.

Loopy28

This is quite common and normally occurs when either

-There is a gap between the old tenant moving out and the new one moving in, meaning a small amount of energy has been used, perhaps for viewings/if a fridge has been left running etc. In this case the bill needs to be forwarded to the letting agent or landlord/lady as they are liable.

-Or it could be that meter readings were not given by the previous occupier when moving out or by you when moving in and the energy provider has estimated these. This is uncommon as letting agents are normally careful to do this but worth checking if the reading is estimated or not.

I worked for British Gas many years ago and this was something that used to happen all the time, noone ever ended up paying it and anything under £30 used to be written off as too expensive to take enforcement action on.

Either way, you are not liable and the bill needs to be forwarded to the letting agent or landlord with a cover letter to state it was for the period before you moved in. If you have changed to Spark, has the supplier changed hands yet from Southern Electric? This does not normally happen from the day you move in so you might have to pay Southern Electric from the day you moved in until the date of the supplier transfer.

45002

You only pay for gas and electric at that address from the date you moved in.

.

If you get any letters addressed to the previous Tenants.

Just cross the address out.

Write on the Envelope.

Left this address, Return to sender please.

Pop it in a letter box next time you pass one and it will not cost you anything, you don't even need to stick a stamp on it...

kinger101

45002 wrote: »

You only pay for gas and electric at that address from the date you moved in.

.

If you get any letters addressed to the previous Tenants.

Just cross the address out.

Write on the Envelope.

Left this address, Return to sender please.

Pop it in a letter box next time you pass one and it will not cost you anything, you don't even need to stick a stamp on it...

The letter was not addressed to the previous tenants. It was addressed to the occupier.

45002

kinger101 wrote:

The letter was not addressed to the previous tenants. It was addressed to the occupier.

Which is why I said

45002 wrote: »

If you get any letters addressed to the previous Tenants.

Newlyboughthouse

I had this when I moved into my property. The mistake I made was not telling the previous supplier of gas and electric my new meter readings (I guess I was naive enough to think people weren't so unbelievably disorganised to not give final meter readings...)

I thought for a long time that it should be enough to just tell my new supplier so the old supplier kept hassling me. Took forever to sort. Just tell Southern Electric your meter readings when you moved in. You will have a 'deemed contract' with them until you inform them.

mcarlin

Loopy28 wrote: »

Either way, you are not liable and the bill needs to be forwarded to the letting agent or landlord with a cover letter to state it was for the period before you moved in. If you have changed to Spark, has the supplier changed hands yet from Southern Electric? This does not normally happen from the day you move in so you might have to pay Southern Electric from the day you moved in until the date of the supplier transfer.

We received our first bill from Spark on 30th November for the period 06/11/2014-30/11/2014, so I presume Spark took over as main energy supplier on the very day our tenancy started. I guess this is evidence enough that SSE have nothing to do with us?

Unfortunately, as I said in the OP, I binned the first two letters (unopened), but I did open and keep the next two. Given the period that Spark started charging us from, would it be enough to just pass on the SSE letters to the landlord to deal with?

Thanks for all your replies - very insightful!

kinger101

mcarlin wrote: »

We received our first bill from Spark on 30th November for the period 06/11/2014-30/11/2014, so I presume Spark took over as main energy supplier on the very day our tenancy started. I guess this is evidence enough that SSE have nothing to do with us?

Unfortunately, as I said in the OP, I binned the first two letters (unopened), but I did open and keep the next two. Given the period that Spark started charging us from, would it be enough to just pass on the SSE letters to the landlord to deal with?

Thanks for all your replies - very insightful!

No, inform SSE it's not your debt. Your responsibility ends there. You LL may not act on the letters, in which case SSE will still send you more letters.