wow prepayment electricity.. too much now

stewie_griffin

Prepayment meters are often installed to collect debt. When you moved in there could have been £1000 debt on the meter that you then paid off over the next few years. What would you do if the meter stopped working?

pochase

borderline said:

Mstty said:

As far as I am aware they would arrive at the property address but in the previous tenants name.

Definitely change it into your name ASAP but they should still arrive.

I will open the envelope and take the voucher to the shop .. I guess it should be fine.. 

And what are you going to do if they want to see a proof of identity?

Ultrasonic

I have no idea how the government support may work in practice in this area, but I'm failing to see any upside to not just getting the bill in your name? It should have been 10 years ago!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

mmm, if voucher not in your name then that's fraud, stealing, would you take a cheque into a bank to cash it in somebody else's name?

borderline

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

mmm, if voucher not in your name then that's fraud, stealing, would you take a cheque into a bank to cash it in somebody else's name?

not stealing really.. the former tenant cannot make any use of this voucher because it goes on the meter that I pay, it's not money for me to spend on something else

borderline

stewie_griffin said:

Prepayment meters are often installed to collect debt. When you moved in there could have been £1000 debt on the meter that you then paid off over the next few years. What would you do if the meter stopped working?

I don't really understand this. How can be debt on a prepayment meter? if you don't top up, that's it , you get no electricity , just about £5 of emergency that gets deducted on the next top up..  or are you saying if the former tenant owned money elsewhere not related to electric this can be taken from the meter?? 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

no, if previous tenant had a pre pay meter installed because of a default on paying previous bills, then pre pay meter would be set to recover that, you might still be paying that debt.

QrizB

borderline said:

stewie_griffin said:

Prepayment meters are often installed to collect debt. When you moved in there could have been £1000 debt on the meter that you then paid off over the next few years. What would you do if the meter stopped working?

I don't really understand this. How can be debt on a prepayment meter? if you don't top up, that's it , you get no electricity , just about £5 of emergency that gets deducted on the next top up..  or are you saying if the former tenant owned money elsewhere not related to electric this can be taken from the meter?? 

If it's been ten years then it's not worth worrying about; you'll have paid off the previous tenant's debts (if there were any) in the first 12 months or so.

But yes, it's possible to get into debt on a prepayment meter, typically by running out of credit and then not topping up (self-disconnecting). The meter continues to rack up the daily standing charge even if you aren't using it.

Potentially a big problem with gas meters if you decide that you're simply not going to use gas from March to November. You come to top the meter up in December and discover you owe £100 or more in unpaid standing charges.

borderline

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

no, if previous tenant had a pre pay meter installed because of a default on paying previous bills, then pre pay meter would be set to recover that, you might still be paying that debt.

it's the choice of the landlord, we are 3 flats here and we all have pre-payment. 

HampshireH

borderline said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

no, if previous tenant had a pre pay meter installed because of a default on paying previous bills, then pre pay meter would be set to recover that, you might still be paying that debt.

it's the choice of the landlord, we are 3 flats here and we all have pre-payment. 

It may have been their choice to have it installed but it has been your choice to keep it for 10 years. 

You definitely need to put the account into your name.

It would be wrong if you ever accrued a debt for them to chase the former tenant.

And as above you definitely could have paid off their debts. You should always put the things you are responsible for paying for into our name.

In this case you could dip out financially if you don't. If vouchers are given to account holders rather than by meter number.

That said how do you know it's in the former tenants name? Do you receive bills addressed to them still? They may have closed their account when they left (won't necessarily have stopped you paying any debt if there ever were one)