Shared ownership - never received a bill!!

Melonball

I hope someone can help with this one!!

We moved into a brand new flat end of 2005, and as it's shared ownership, the housing association wrote to us, saying that they were in negotiations with an energy supplier, as keeping the whole block with the same supplier would work out cheaper for all of us. However, we have never received a bill, and have recently had someone come round to check the meters...

i'm aware that if the supplier is at fault, they can backdate for no more than a year, but does this situation count as a supplier being at fault or the housing association? What can we do as we will have over two years of bill to pay (I think all the meters were at zero when we moved in)....

dmg24

Have you not thought of chasing up the HA?

Melonball

I'm not sure if you've ever had to deal with a housing association but they are incredibly slow at doing *anything*..... Having been told they were sorting things, I trusted they would. I am paying them extortionate rent after all...

dmg24

Yes, I have had plenty of dealings with HA's. But the ultimate responsibility lies with you to arrange utilities, not them. Therefore you will be liable for the payments not made.

Melonball

We were sent a letter saying that the housing association were 'in negotiations with the suppliers', with the intentions of keeping the whole block with one energy provider. We were in no position to arrange a different supplier for ourselves.

dmg24

Is this your first home by any chance?

Unless there was something in your lease stating that the HA would choose the supplier, then you have every right to choose your own.

You need to be proactive. Whether that is contacting suppliers or the HA, you need to take steps to get it sorted, not just wait for people to come to you.

Ring the HA tomorrow and see what they say. If they have not sorted anything, then choose a supplier and contact them.

Unless you can show that you took reasonable steps to arrange supply (i.e. chasing the HA for a response), then you are liable for (at least) the last year's payments.

Melonball

Ok I'll go over my lease fully tomorrow, but how can I show that I tried chasing them up as all requests were done over the phone?
We're in the process of moving now, for the very reason that I don't want to deal with H.A.s any more; they have done nothing but mess things up since we moved in:mad: