Keep getting bill from previous owner

Poppie90

Bought our home earlier this year and a few months after received a bill from SSE for the ‘landlord’. We sent a copy of the bill to the previous owner and landlord of the flat. They paid the bill. We also rang SSE explaining we were the new owners and have and wanted to check it had been paid, they confirmed it had and said nothing more needed to be done. We have continued to receive more letters saying the bill hasn’t been paid, which we have forwarded to the previous owner. Today we received a letter saying that a debt collector could be sent round if the bill is not paid. What should we do? 

km1500

do nothing - the bill.is not yours.

[Deleted User]

km1500 said:

do nothing - the bill.is not yours.

Was the bill actually for the owner before you - so the end date of the bill was before you bought?

New bills on a change of ownership are often addressed "The Occupier", but if the supplier was aware that it was previously tenanted I've seen them addressed to "The Landlord" instead.  If it's one of those, it's your bill.

Jyana

I would give them the contact details of the previous landlord/owner you have been sending them to yourself so that they are able to get in contact with them directly, instead of being the middleman in all this.

[Deleted User]

Jyana said:

I would give them the contact details of your agent/landlord so that they are able to get in contact with them directly, instead of being the middleman in all this.

Do you expect them to have an agent/landlord when they say they have "bought our home"?

GrumpyDil

Jyana said:

I would give them the contact details of your agent/landlord so that they are able to get in contact with them directly, instead of being the middleman in all this.

They bought the house so no landlord to deal with.

I would probably give the company one last call to say not my debt and as long as the bill relates to time before you owned the house I would just keep a copy of proof of when the purchase completed handy to show to any debt collectors. 

[Deleted User]

GrumpyDil said:

Jyana said:

I would give them the contact details of your agent/landlord so that they are able to get in contact with them directly, instead of being the middleman in all this.

They bought the house so no landlord to deal with.

I would probably give the company one last call to say not my debt and as long as the bill relates to time before you owned the house I would just keep a copy of proof of when the purchase completed handy to show to any debt collectors. 

I'm actually in a very similar situation.  I get debt collection letters addressed to the previous owner, relating to a mortgage deficit from when they sold to me.

I know it's not my debt, and they don't seem to care.  I also know that there's nothing against the deeds related to that debt, so they are chasing against the person and not the property.  If bailiffs arrive, I'll make them a coffee and show them my ID and house purchase records, then they will leave.

Luckily, I'm not stressed about the idea of bailiffs turning up at my door, but I'm sure many others would think differently.

Jyana

[Deleted User] said:

Jyana said:

I would give them the contact details of your agent/landlord so that they are able to get in contact with them directly, instead of being the middleman in all this.

Do you expect them to have an agent/landlord when they say they have "bought our home"?

Edited to make it clearer.

EssexHebridean

If bailiffs arrive, simply tell them that you are not the person they are looking for, and suggest that they leave your property. Then close the door. There is no requirement to show them anything. 

Poppie90

Sorry can’t work out how to quote people on here but just realised I should have included this in the first paragraph but was trying to be concise:

it was a 12 month bill, one month of which covered the first month of us living here. We transferred the money for this one month to the ex owner/ landlord who then paid the whole bill (which SSE actually confirmed to us on the phone.)

the other 11 months worth of the bill was before we even bought the property.

We did try to discuss with SSE but because we are not the account holder they wouldn’t give us any more information other than saying it had been paid and there’s nothing more to do. 

Poppie90

We have documents confirming the date we bought/ start of mortgage so we will keep this handy. Obviously happy to pay for the one month again if we really need to but it only makes up a tiny portion of the bill so I’m worried about a debt collector turning up for the other 11 months worth of money from before we moved in