Elec/Gas cutoff

himalayasalt

Hi,

My energy supplier is threat to cut off my supply. The debt for electricity was 1500 and 500 on gas. I paid last week about 1700 towards them so that each is now in debt 150. That's all I could come up with.

The debt was caused by a tenant in my property who was being charged 250 a month for rent (less than average market value), under the condition that he pay utilities... turns out he didn't pay them ever . This is an inherited property, before I moved in he had 3 years of utility fees auto debited from my mother's bank account (beginning after he found out she passed away, he stopped sending her money for utilities at that time) and this ended when the estate shut her bank account down. This went on for about three years. He decided he could get away with a free ride and he did. Those bills were paid by my deceased mother.

But, his deception continued because I moved in to a room here about 10 months before my mother's bank account was shut down, and after 10 months living here I started to notice letters from SSE appearing in the mail box.. and only then realised he wasn't paying despite telling me otherwise. We are flatmates. I've been on the hook for that debt since her account closed down because I put it in my name, I live here and I'm the owner. On a side-note, he also didn't pay rent for a full year after she died, claiming that his rent would 'bounce back' from her account without him noticing... isn't that squatting? This was noticed by the estate eventually.

I've tried my best to pay off the debt under my name since I realised what was going on (i immediately called SSE and had them put it in my name) but my account started with that 10 month's of debt that was unpaid. Due to a disability and autism have had difficulty in steady work and finances are hard. The energy supplier is aware of my health issues.

Can I be cut off? It's really getting cold here now. The energy company says my ongoing energy use is 105 for elec and 50 for gas, based off of 24 or it might have been a 36 month average (they will not calculate it based off of a short time period). I've smart metres here now and the ongoing use is more like 30 for each but they won't accept this as I've only had the smart metres installed for 4 months. I can't afford their debt repayment plan because it overestimates my energy usage by a factor of 3.. and would leave me on food vouchers from my doc and very quickly a surplus/credit of funds on my energy account.

Thanks for your advice.

System

We can all give you our personal views but what you need is proper advice from those who are trained and paid to give it. It your situation, I would arrange to speak to an energy adviser at your local branch of Citizens Advice. Ask them to put you in touch with their Extra Help Unit. This Unit has access to Supplier Executive Teams. As you have paid off so much of the debt, it is unlikely that any supplier would disconnect your supply. Citizens Advice should also be able to help you with your tenant. Best of luck.

badmemory

Is he actually a tenant now or a lodger as they have different rights?

macman

The OP describes him as a 'flatmate'. So a lodger, not a tenant-no rights whatsoever.
OP, if he was a tenant before you moved into the property, then you have no liability for his utility debts from that period. So unclear why you have apparently paid his debts.
Cutting off is incredibly rare,;if you agree a repayment plan and break it then the next step will be to get a warrant, force entry and fit PPM's.

molerat

macman wrote: »

The OP describes him as a 'flatmate'. So a lodger, not a tenant-no rights whatsoever.
OP, if he was a tenant before you moved into the property, then you have no liability for his utility debts from that period. So unclear why you have apparently paid his debts.

It looks a lot more complicated than that, it seems that op's mother's estate was paying the bills then op was named account holder but tenant should have been paying the bills.