Did I ever owe this debt to utility company?

ryouga

6 few years ago I lived in a shared property though everyone had their own contract per room basis, the tenant who had their name on the bill moved out before I even moved in and the other current tenant said it was in their name after that we just paid the main tenant so much per month.

A few months after I moved out I was harassed by utility company saying I owed money because the LL put the remaining tenants names on the contract but I refused to pay stating I never owed it and wanted to see evidence of the alleged debt which the debt collector outright refused to provide just saying "well you lived there from A to B dates and X amount of electricity was used in those dates therefore you owe that amount"

If I ignore it a few more months anyway it will be the 6 year mark but confused on that as I never made any payments and dispute I even owe the debt, not that I have been chased up any more about it.

HappyMJ

If there is only a few months to go before it's statute barred then what does it matter? Just ignore it.

ryouga

Just for peace of mind though in case I get problems like that in future.

And also I moved somewhere else about 3 months after moving in but think the original tenancy agreement was 6 months.

I just want to make it difficult as possible for them.

patanne

I was under the impression that in an HMO the landlord was supposed to be responsible, but it looks like he has shuffled that off onto the lodgers and you are the only one they could find. Check it is due to come off your credit report shortly and then ignore. This is not the advice I would normally give which would be pay your debts but shared properties are a recurring nightmare for this.

HappyMJ

ryouga wrote: »

Just for peace of mind though in case I get problems like that in future.

And also I moved somewhere else about 3 months after moving in but think the original tenancy agreement was 6 months.

I just want to make it difficult as possible for them.

If you move into a share house you need to check with the landlord who is responsible for the bills before agreeing to move in. Sometimes it's the landlord who pays the bills and splits the cost including it with your rent or billing you separately in arrears or in advance, sometimes the bill is in the name of just one of the tenants (usually the one who has been there the longest and is the one who communicates with the landlord on behalf of everyone else) and everyone else pays them something every week either based on estimates or meter readings and sometimes all the tenants are named on the bill and you are all jointly liable for the whole bill which I would want to avoid.

You would normally be responsible for the account until the room you have is re-let or you come to the end of your agreement. You could despite only staying for 3 months be responsible for 6 months of the bill even though you never used any of the utilities in the last 3 months of your tenancy. Once a new tenant moves in your liability ends.

So your answer could be anything really.

ryouga

HappyMJ wrote: »

If you move into a share house you need to check with the landlord who is responsible for the bills before agreeing to move in. Sometimes it's the landlord who pays the bills and splits the cost including it with your rent or billing you separately in arrears or in advance, sometimes the bill is in the name of just one of the tenants (usually the one who has been there the longest and is the one who communicates with the landlord on behalf of everyone else) and everyone else pays them something every week either based on estimates or meter readings and sometimes all the tenants are named on the bill and you are all jointly liable for the whole bill which I would want to avoid.

You would normally be responsible for the account until the room you have is re-let or you come to the end of your agreement. You could despite only staying for 3 months be responsible for 6 months of the bill even though you never used any of the utilities in the last 3 months of your tenancy. Once a new tenant moves in your liability ends.

So your answer could be anything really.

It wasnt let like a normal hmo, the LL had tricks like saying there was only 3 rooms occupied so he didnt have to put locks on the doors, and didnt put room numbers on the tenancy agreements etc.

It wasnt let in the sense if one tenant doesnt pay rent then all are liable and there was 1 room empty when I was there, and I wanted to stay but LL wanted to let the property out to a bunch of 2nd years without asking me if I wanted to stay on (it was student accomodation and I wanted to move from current place due to arguments with other tenants) and LL wanted me out early to redecorate.

We did have 2 meter readings when living there as well from utility company that LL set up.

HappyMJ

ryouga wrote: »

It wasnt let like a normal hmo, the LL had tricks like saying there was only 3 rooms occupied so he didnt have to put locks on the doors, and didnt put room numbers on the tenancy agreements etc.

It wasnt let in the sense if one tenant doesnt pay rent then all are liable and there was 1 room empty when I was there, and I wanted to stay but LL wanted to let the property out to a bunch of 2nd years without asking me if I wanted to stay on (it was student accomodation and I wanted to move from current place due to arguments with other tenants) and LL wanted me out early to redecorate.

We did have 2 meter readings when living there as well from utility company that LL set up.

LL doesn't need to put locks on doors and rooms don't require room numbers.

It sounds like you had a normal tenancy agreement giving you exclusive use of a room. Whether it's let to students or working adults doesn't make any difference. LL had no right to require you to leave before the end of the tenancy agreement so you could have stayed if you had wanted to especially considering the reason was just to redecorate which isn't good enough.

Anyway, this is all nearly 6 years ago forget about it. Next time ask questions of your potential landlord and find out who is responsible for utility bills. Sometimes it's landlord and sometimes it's the tenants.