Credit score impacted significantly over late payment from other tenants

Tiggy223

Hi all,
I have seen my Experian credit score drop from 963 to 536 over a significantly late payment that was made to British Gas in a joint account from previous people I lived with. My liability was settled 5 months ago, however one tenant failed to pay her share of £98. The debt was passed on to a debt collection agency and despite not being liable, I agreed to pay the amount.

British Gas have advised that they will now mark the account as "satisfied" which will still have a baring on my credit score for 6 years and I wondered if anybody knew of any remedy for me to have this removed? It of course, was not my fault as it was the tenant who failed to pay.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

If it was a joint account, then no, as you have joint liability.

MuddyFunster

You could try adding a NOC to explain to any potential creditors what's happened - I've always seen these as a bit of a double edged sword - if you're trying for a 'big lend' then it's better because the process is slow and it gives you a chance to put your story to the actual underwriter.


However if you're going for a 'small lend' or a something like a new utility provider it will usually fail an auto-underwrite as the creditor is duty bound to read them and it slows everything up.


Or at least that's how it worked, when I worked in finance until 2009.