Unpaid tenants energy bill

andyko

Long story short. Tenants left the property without paying last 2 months of their bills.
In the aftermath they told EON they left in September when in fact it was end of November. 

They left without checkout inventory and without paying for the last month rent, so their deposit went to cover the rent.
I have text messages, email in which they gave notice at the end of October and many witnesses who saw them still moving out long after the new tenants moved in.

EON didn’t want to look into any of it and adamant to get the payment from me(I didn’t even had a contract with them!)

I filed a complaint to The Energy Ombudsman, but meanwhile the debt collection agency from EON contacted me. 

I am worried that this might damage my credit score before Ombudsman makes a decision.

Should I just pay them to avoid problems and after Ombudsman resolution try to get some justice?

or should I sit tight and wait for Ombudsman?

its 400£ Bill and my priority is to keep my credit clean. I am not professional landlord, it’s just an investment for me.

Can collectors damage my credit score or do they have to take me to court first?

[Deleted User]

If the agreement is in their names, it won't impact you.

theoretica

Do you know if your tenants told EON in September that they were leaving - or in November told them that they had actually left two months before?  It might affect how easy it is to get EON to believe you.

D3xt3r5L4b

andyko said:

Long story short. Tenants left the property without paying last 2 months of their bills.
In the aftermath they told EON they left in September when in fact it was end of November. 

They left without checkout inventory and without paying for the last month rent, so their deposit went to cover the rent.
I have text messages, email in which they gave notice at the end of October and many witnesses who saw them still moving out long after the new tenants moved in.

EON didn’t want to look into any of it and adamant to get the payment from me(I didn’t even had a contract with them!)

I filed a complaint to The Energy Ombudsman, but meanwhile the debt collection agency from EON contacted me. 

I am worried that this might damage my credit score before Ombudsman makes a decision.

Should I just pay them to avoid problems and after Ombudsman resolution try to get some justice?

or should I sit tight and wait for Ombudsman?

its 400£ Bill and my priority is to keep my credit clean. I am not professional landlord, it’s just an investment for me.

Can collectors damage my credit score or do they have to take me to court first?

Whose name is the bill under? It should be in the tenants names.

Your “score” isn’t a factor used in lending. 

Petriix

They can't bill you for the period covered by the tenancy. I assume that you took readings and contacted EON on the day they did move out and opened an account in your own name, unless you had new tenants moving in immediately? Just tell the debt collectors that the 'debt' is disputed and the subject of an ongoing complaint. 

DebtHurricane

Send the tenancy agreement to EON. That’s the proof of when they were responsible for the property. 

[Deleted User]

andyko said:

Long story short. Tenants left the property without paying last 2 months of their bills.
In the aftermath they told EON they left in September when in fact it was end of November. 

They left without checkout inventory and without paying for the last month rent, so their deposit went to cover the rent.
I have text messages, email in which they gave notice at the end of October and many witnesses who saw them still moving out long after the new tenants moved in.

EON didn’t want to look into any of it and adamant to get the payment from me(I didn’t even had a contract with them!)

I filed a complaint to The Energy Ombudsman, but meanwhile the debt collection agency from EON contacted me. 

I am worried that this might damage my credit score before Ombudsman makes a decision.

Should I just pay them to avoid problems and after Ombudsman resolution try to get some justice?

or should I sit tight and wait for Ombudsman?

its 400£ Bill and my priority is to keep my credit clean. I am not professional landlord, it’s just an investment for me.

Can collectors damage my credit score or do they have to take me to court first?

It doesn't matter if you have 1 rental property or 100 you should be professional. Perhaps if you had been this wouldn't be such an issue now.  How on earth were these tenants still moving out long after the new tenants moved in?

Before escalating the matter to the ombudsman did you follow e.on's complaint process?  What communications from e.on do you have saying that don't want to look into it?

If e.on believe you owe them money then they can report this to the credit reference agencies and it could be registered on your credit files as a default.  However, if you can demonstrate you do not owe the money then any defaults, late payment markers, etc relating to this bill can be removed from your credit files.

HampshireH

Send eon the tenancy agreement, notice and your confirmation accepting notice and date tenancy would end.

You are liable for the void period so from the time you gave eon when you called them up to advise the tenancy had ended and gave them the meter readings to the time you did the same when your new tenants moved in.

You are not liable for their personal debt.

henry11vr

It definitely depends on the names, which are written in the agreement.

andyko

Thank you everyone for all responses.
I do my business properly. 
Tenants agreement had names of my tenants and was signed for a year. We signed new agreement every year.

Tenants gave me notice approximately 6 month into 1 year letting agreement, so contract would be still active for 5-6 months.

Not sure when tenants told EON that they are moving - most likely they didn’t tell until later, but I don’t know and EON won’t tell me.

Someone was asking how is it possible to move out long after the last rent payment. It’s actually very easy, they told me that they will get their stuff tomorrow and disappear for a week and several times like this. Eventually I had to store their belongings in my garage for few month because I couldn’t  throw it away legally.

Once they moved out we made a mistake to give a call to EON, they obviously took our details. Eon asked for checkout inventory signed by tenants which we couldn’t provide because they didn’t sign it.
 EON simply transferred the debt to my name. We don’t have new address of tenants- they obviously knew what they were doing. 

There several other utility companies and HMRC still chasing them on my property address, but only EON did this trick on me by transferring their debt. 

We sent contract and to EON and all communication and email with their notice.
We also went through the complain process with EON and received Dead-letter.

EON complaint department said it’s my word against theirs and they don’t want to look into evidence - I think they simply can’t contact them and I am always available, I.e much easier target.

I mentioned that I have only 1 property so you get the idea that I don’t deal with this mess on a daily basis. And tenants - married couple with 3 kids so it’s not some kind of thugs we are talking about. 

Looking back I am not sure at what point did I make a mistake- probably telling EON my details

andyko

The overlap between tenants was 1 week which I would be happy to pay, but it’s not 400£