Housemate racking up big bills

Welshj01

I am in a shared house, we all have separate contracts with all bills included, including internet and Virgin TV. Our landlord has contacted us to say that some add-ons have been purchased on the Virgin TV, Sky Sports, some movies etc. and has sent us a letter saying that we owe the money.
I know I have not personally purchased anything, and that it is a single housemate that has bought all of these add-ons, he is not taking any responsibility, is there anything we can do?

Welshj01

On top of this, apparently these extra charges have been happening since December last year and the landlords have only just told is about them.

Pixie5740

Lick his cheese....

Welshj01

Pixie5740 I don't understand how this is useful in anyway

Pixie5740

On a serious note, I assume the landlord is the account holder so how does your housemate have enough access to the account to buy these extras? Your landlord should be locking it down.

Your housemate sounds like an A-hole but what can you do about him? Your landlord has sent a letter saying you, is that you plural, owe the money but did the letter say what steps he would take if the money was not paid?

moneyistooshorttomention

I guess it might be an idea to contact Virgin and find out exactly who is down officially as the account holder and details like when the account was opened/what add-ons were taken out at the time/etc??

Presumably your landlord will come up as the account holder. If that is the case then ask Virgin as to how/why they apparently accepted someone else's say-so about putting add-ons onto the account and point out that it is is only the landlord that is account holder and therefore it is only the landlord that can amend the Virgin account. Followed by asking Virgin why they apparently accepted amendments from anyone other than the account holder.

I would think it might be possible to "throw this back" onto Virgin's shoulders that it's their fault for accepting amendments to instructions from anyone other than the account holder. With that - they should cancel these extra charges this recalcitrant flatmate added on and put measures in place to make sure that only the landlord can alter things from here on in.

EDIT; I wonder if this flatmate has been deliberately impersonating the landlord? If he has - then I wonder if Virgin are the only firm he has been doing this with? Goes off to google if impersonating someone else is against the law and what the penalties for it are......

Welshj01

Pixie5740 wrote: »

On a serious note, I assume the landlord is the account holder so how does your housemate have enough access to the account to buy these extras? Your landlord should be locking it down.

Your housemate sounds like an A-hole but what can you do about him? Your landlord has sent a letter saying you, is that you plural, owe the money but did the letter say what steps he would take if the money was not paid?

Exactly that is what I do not understand either, the bill is in the landlords name but they haven't done anything to prevent it just say that we owe this much money.

And yes my housemate is an !!!!!!, we have had countless issues with him, unfortunately our landlords are gutless.

moneyistooshorttomention

https://www.himsworthslegal.com website

says:

"Fraud Act 2006 - an offence to dishonestly make a false representation with the intention of making a gain or causing a loss".

Well if that flatmate of yours has impersonated your landlord - they've just gone right against that Act.:cool:

sheff6107

The landlord is gutless? Or the rest of you who are accepting your housemate owes you all money and are messing about without any plan of how you are going to extract the cash from him/her?

Welshj01

The said housemate isn't the most intellectually gifted, and through our investigating it appears that the account is in the landlords name, and there is a pin on the account that is needed to be input when trying to buy anything on the account. I personally don't know the pin code, but I do know that said housemate does as I have seen him input it. I will go back to the landlord and see what they say.

Welshj01

sheff6107 wrote: »

The landlord is gutless? Or the rest of you who are accepting your housemate owes you all money and are messing about without any plan of how you are going to extract the cash from him/her?

No the landlord is gutless, he lives across the street and won't even come to talk to us about the issue, he sends a letter. Also we have had huge problems with this housemate and we have done everything we can do but the landlord refuses to say anything to the person above sending them a letter or a text.

It even got to the point where the housemate moved in a couple of members of his family without telling us, we asked them to leave and then informed the landlord but they still only sent him a text and nothing more.