Utilities debt - who pays?

DaisyAmelie75 · 22 October 2018 at 6:25PM

My husband and I are separating and I am buying the family home from him - last year he didn’t notice our utilities direct debit wasn’t being taken (!) and by the time he noticed we were in a lot of debt. The bills are in his sole name. When he moves out who’s responsible for paying this? I have a signed minute of separation agreement that states all of our debts are our own at the date of separation.

Can I change the untilitoes into my name once the house is mine or do I have to pay the bill? (It’s £1500)

Thanks

System · 22 October 2018 at 7:08PM

I think that you need the Familes; Marriages and Relationships forum or a good solicitor.

DaisyAmelie75 · 22 October 2018 at 7:20PM

This isn’t an issue with family and marriage - it’s about who legally has to pay the outstanding utility bill.

DaisyAmelie75 · 22 October 2018 at 7:22PM

(And I have a good solicitor but she’s 250 per hour so don’t want to pay for a question I’m hoping someone her might answer!) thanks

System · 22 October 2018 at 7:37PM

With respect, your post is about which party is responsible for paying off a debt that arguably you both have incurred. Contributors to the forum that I suggested may have life experience of dealing with similar issues.

Yes, you can transfer the property utilities’ accounts into your name; however, this will require your husband’s approval; ie, he will have to take action to close the accounts in his name. The suppliers may want to carry out credit checks and they may not agree to the same tariff terms.

Source Equifax:

When it comes to utility bills, things are more complex, often bills like gas, electric or telephone will be in the name of a particular individual and that person will be held responsible for the payment. In this case, if it is clear that the bill was being paid on behalf of others, they may be held responsible, otherwise it will fall upon the individual named on the bill to pursue the money.

Cardew · 22 October 2018 at 10:21PM

There have been some similar cases on this forum and there is no clear cut answer to your query.

It seems from your opening post that energy bills were a joint responsibilty e.g 'our utility bills' - 'we were a lot in debt' and clearly you benefitted from that energy.

Unless your husband acknowledges that the debt is his reponsibilty I suspect that the Energy company will keep the debt with the family home; citing joint liability.

[Deleted User] · 22 October 2018 at 10:50PM

if the account is only in the name of your husband then he is liable for all the debts up until he vacated the property.
It is exactly the same as if say , your husband had died and he was registered as the account holder and there were debts.The debts are not transferred to the wife and they would only be paid if there was enough money in the estate.
Suppliers only deal with the account holder. Energy bills would be only a joint responsibilty if you were both named on the account. After all you may not have been living in the property.
Confirm this by a visit to Citizens Advice, They should know this as its question they would be asked quite often. I m not sure if solicitors would be much use anyway in this specialised area.
We have had this question quite a few times on here over the years and usually the answer was the person named as account holder is the only person suppliers can legally claim from.
That is not to say that the suppliers will not "chase " other occupiers .

SnowTiger · 23 October 2018 at 12:25AM

DaisyAmelie75 wrote: »

My husband and I are separating and I am buying the family home from him - last year he didn’t notice our utilities direct debit wasn’t being taken (!) and by the time he noticed we were in a lot of debt. The bills are in his sole name. When he moves out who’s responsible for paying this? I have a signed minute of separation agreement that states all of our debts are our own at the date of separation.

Can I change the untilitoes into my name once the house is mine or do I have to pay the bill? (It’s £1500)

The utility bills are his.

Don't get lulled in to thinking you're only changing the name on the bills in to your name.

You're a new customer. Treat utility bills as you would if you were moving in to a new home. You wouldn't expect to have to settle the bills of the previous owner.

DaisyAmelie75 · 23 October 2018 at 11:24AM

Thanks for all your help and taking the time to reply - I am a lot worse off financially and have our 3 children to raise so don’t want to start life as a single parent in debt because he forgot to check his bill payments. I appreciate that me and the children benefitted from the energy supply but at the time he was supporting us financially so don’t feel I should pay this now we are separated.

Cardew · 23 October 2018 at 11:50AM

Houbara wrote: »

i

Suppliers only deal with the account holder. Energy bills would be only a joint responsibilty if you were both named on the account. .

With respect, I beg to differ with the above two posts about the husband being solely responsible for the debt to the utility company.
There have been plenty of cases on MSE where the person named on the account has not paid and the debt passed to other occupants of the house – who were occupants during the period the debt built up.

Firstly bear in mind that many utility companies will not have accounts in joint names. This is a post from the very helpful Eon representative in an earlier post:

My colleague's right. All accounts are now set up in the one name only. We stopped having accounts under more than one name when we started sharing information with Credit Reference Agencies in 2012. Before this, it was possible to have more than the one name on an account.

There have been cases of students, named as the account holder, disappearing; some foreign students going home and are untraceable.

There was a series of posts some years ago from someone openly admitting a scam, where one member of the family built up a debt then ‘disappeared’ and another family member using a different surname attempted to open an account with ‘the slate wiped clean’
Both these cases failed as other people had used energy and they were held responsible.

As I stated in post#6 in the OP’s case it appears that energy costs were shared during the time the debt accrued. Therefore IMO it is a case of ‘joint liability’ and the husband would not be liable for all the bill.

OP, by all means try to get the energy company to chase him for whole debt and up until the time he moved out, but I suspect that if he seeks legal advice etc etc!! Or a quick phone call to your solicitor - even at £250 an hour - would be money well spent.

poppasmurf_bewdley · 23 October 2018 at 12:06PM

It's in his name so it's his bill. In fact, I doubt the energy company will even talk to you about it.

To avoid any more friction than necessary, it may be wise for you to make an offer to pay towards the bill. There may well be other bills with your name on that you could split.

But if you do make an offer, make sure your share goes directly to the energy company account, not paid in cash for spending down the pub! And don't pay by credit or debt card as they could take more if the ex doesn't cough up.

Utilities debt - who pays?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free