FYI - Yorkshire Water is reporting to CRA

Yorkie006

Hi,
in case it helps anyone, Yorkshire Water is reporting to CRAs.
I found out the hard way. My then boyfriend had a really bad credit history so we kept all finances separate for this reason. All was ok, until we moved house and the letting agent informed YW and they created an account in both our names. Fast forward a few years, we broke up and I finally got round to checking my credit file (after being denied a cheap mobile contract) only to find out I was financially linked to my ex... I got the connection removed now, but I was quite a shock when I found out. And it was all because of an overly eager letting agency who took it upon themselves to open utility accounts without asking who's name to put on them (or even asking if we were going to transfer existing accounts). I had an account with YW in my name only for ages and always simply transferred it to a new property (YW never shared payment info with CRA in the past, no idea when this changed) and if I'd know they started reporting I would have transferred my original account to the now property without adding my BF's name to it...
Anyway, I hope this info helps someone to avoid nasty surprises...

Froggy8

Hello Yorkshire Water has been reporting to cra for few years now, they did it to me on 2014 when I got my first house.

Yorkie006

I've been with YW for almost 20 years now and they did not report originally. I don't know when it changed. It never showed on my credit report while the account was in my name only. It only appeared when the join account was created and I did not notice as I had all sort of personal problems at the time and didn't check my credit file for a long time. so it was a nasty surprise to find out that my credit file is now linked to my ex because of an account with a water company. If I knew it was going to cause me problems getting credit, I would not allow the account to be set up in joint names. 
On a side note, why did LA think it was their job to set up utility accounts in tenants names without asking first or at least confirming who's name to put on the account? It's not like they are responsible for the bills so what business is it of theirs? If the bills don't get paid, they can show the tenancy agreement to prove who lived there and when.