Debt from between tenants?

Guest101

Indeed if the agents actions (or lack of) have caused you financial loss, you can ofcourse sue them also (but not both parties, you cant profit from this, simply get back to zero)

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning scarfey88 and welcome to the forum.

There's already some really good information and advice on the thread, so thank you all.

I'm not sure I can actually move this forward for you, due to the level it has reached, I understand the account has an open complaint and you're now approaching the Ombudsman.

I do have to agree that you should also be speaking to the letting agent and establishing exactly what information they provided to us, agreements, meter reads, dates and names etc. We can only act on information that has been provided to us, we don't know when people move in and out of properties if we're not advised about it.

It appears you've got copies of the tenancy agreements to show who is responsible for each period, so this is great, it would help more so if you also had the meter reads from move in and out dates.

The standing charges will still apply when a property is empty.

I think speaking again to the agent may be best thing, if you're complaint with us is open, you'll have a complaint manager and that's your point of contact here.

I'm sorry you've found yourself in this position though.

Thank you

Helena

Somerset

Pixie5740 wrote: »

There is a relevance to the questions G_M asked, to determine who is liable for the utility bill.

No. Liability has been agreed/settled. The OP is liable for £1.48 worth of standing charge for the void week. This appears to be accepted by both Eon and the OP. The issue is this £1.48 has become £400 odd as it was passed to debt collectors. The OP thinks this £1.48 +> £400 is unreasonable.

Guest101

Somerset wrote: »

No. Liability has been agreed/settled. The OP is liable for £1.48 worth of standing charge for the void week. This appears to be accepted by both Eon and the OP. The issue is this £1.48 has become £400 odd as it was passed to debt collectors. The OP thinks this £1.48 +> £400 is unreasonable.

Perhaps the EON representative can help - because as far as I'm aware, any admin charges for collection of debts should be fair and proportionate to the debt being sought.


Obviously, even the most ancient judge in the land will throw out £400 admin fees for a £1.49 debt.


In any case, any loss must be mitigated and again a £400 'loss' for a £1.49 debt is not being mitigated. As such this case will never reach CCJ status.


Basically EON need to write it off

AdrianC

Guest101 wrote: »

Perhaps the EON representative can help

The E.on rep has already said they can no longer help, as it's been escalated to the ombudsman.

Somerset

Guest101 wrote: »

Perhaps the EON representative can help - because as far as I'm aware, any admin charges for collection of debts should be fair and proportionate to the debt being sought.


Obviously, even the most ancient judge in the land will throw out £400 admin fees for a £1.49 debt.


In any case, any loss must be mitigated and again a £400 'loss' for a £1.49 debt is not being mitigated. As such this case will never reach CCJ status.


Basically EON need to write it off

They should, but ....I imagine their system has tied itself in knots over this, and the CS. Because there were unpaid (tenant) arrears of £1000 - I assume £1000 arrears plus £400 charges/late payments, those 'charges' are somewhere on their system. The OP then unravelled the mess with Eon to arrive at his liability/responsibility which was £1.49. This seems to be the accepted position by both Eon and OP. OP offered to pay the £1.49 but the floating £400 charges seem to have attached to the £1.49. Common sense vs system says.

Guest101

AdrianC wrote: »

The E.on rep has already said they can no longer help, as it's been escalated to the ombudsman.

I meant help to clarify why £400 would be added in fees to such a small debt.

scarfey88

OK, so spoke to Eon again today for an update. I do have a complaints manager. Thanks for all the useful information and appreciate the responses from people trying to help.

So basically, Eon have received an email from someone (they can't access the email) in May 2015 which coincides with the new tenants moving in, which was recorded as someone asking to move from Eon to a new energy supplier. However, as they cannot access the email, they can't tell me whether this was the new tenant/letting agent contacting them to change over the name on the tenancy. Also, it appears that there have been 3 or 4 different accounts created at the address over the last 18 months which they can't really explain.

Again, I am not disputing that I was responsible for the week period where no one was in the property, that was never in question. The fact is, I wasn't aware that during that week a £1.49 charge had been accrued, and I have been held liable for Eon having to serve a warrant on the property, which is where the additional £400 odd has come from. My question is, why does this liability for serving the warrant lay with me? Surely the fault equally lies with the tenant that moved into the property? Would they not have to inform the energy supplier that they were in the property? I had devolved responsibility to the letting agent at this point, so appreciate that they are likely to be at fault here as well. I am of course happy to be told that I am wrong with any of the above.

Also, say for instance I had sold the property whilst I was oversees. As there was no name on the account, there would be no way of Eon attributing that bill to anyone at all, as they had all the fees accruing under an 'occupier' account. Eon have admitted that at no point did they write to me directly, despite having my name from the land registry. The only way they got my details at all was when I rang them in June to say I had moved back into the property. Another question is, why when I rang them in June was the issue with debt being on the account/there not being any name on the account raised with me? This again, has thrown me a bit, and Eon haven't been able to answer.

Either way, I have the letting agent chasing it from there end as they were, as per the contract, responsible for changing over the utility bills (which they, weirdly, did for everything less the electricity company). What's more annoying is that the letting agent took meter readings when the previous tenant moved out and the new tenant moved in. I am hoping that the ombudsmen (it's not reached that stage yet) would agree with me that a £1.49 charge that had turned to £400 was disproportionate, but it depends on what I am actually being held liable for...

silvercar

I would guess that the original arrear bill of £1400 included £400 charges. When they accepted that £1000 was due from the tenants and not you, they knocked that off your bill leaving £400 due from you.

marksoton

scarfey88 wrote: »

OK, so spoke to Eon again today for an update. I do have a complaints manager. Thanks for all the useful information and appreciate the responses from people trying to help.

So basically, Eon have received an email from someone (they can't access the email) in May 2015 which coincides with the new tenants moving in, which was recorded as someone asking to move from Eon to a new energy supplier. However, as they cannot access the email, they can't tell me whether this was the new tenant/letting agent contacting them to change over the name on the tenancy. Also, it appears that there have been 3 or 4 different accounts created at the address over the last 18 months which they can't really explain.

Again, I am not disputing that I was responsible for the week period where no one was in the property, that was never in question. The fact is, I wasn't aware that during that week a £1.49 charge had been accrued, and I have been held liable for Eon having to serve a warrant on the property, which is where the additional £400 odd has come from. My question is, why does this liability for serving the warrant lay with me? Surely the fault equally lies with the tenant that moved into the property? Would they not have to inform the energy supplier that they were in the property? I had devolved responsibility to the letting agent at this point, so appreciate that they are likely to be at fault here as well. I am of course happy to be told that I am wrong with any of the above.

Also, say for instance I had sold the property whilst I was oversees. As there was no name on the account, there would be no way of Eon attributing that bill to anyone at all, as they had all the fees accruing under an 'occupier' account. Eon have admitted that at no point did they write to me directly, despite having my name from the land registry. The only way they got my details at all was when I rang them in June to say I had moved back into the property. Another question is, why when I rang them in June was the issue with debt being on the account/there not being any name on the account raised with me? This again, has thrown me a bit, and Eon haven't been able to answer.

Either way, I have the letting agent chasing it from there end as they were, as per the contract, responsible for changing over the utility bills (which they, weirdly, did for everything less the electricity company). What's more annoying is that the letting agent took meter readings when the previous tenant moved out and the new tenant moved in. I am hoping that the ombudsmen (it's not reached that stage yet) would agree with me that a £1.49 charge that had turned to £400 was disproportionate, but it depends on what I am actually being held liable for...

Guess what?

Not a single person on this forum can answer those questions.....

Either ask Eon or failing that do so in open court when they claim.