O/T unpaid utility bills by past house owner

Could anyone offer some advice please?

When we moved into our new house there were a few letters on the mat from SSE who were the utility company the house was being supplied by. They were addressed to ‘The Occupier’ and were for unpaid bills of around £50 odd for both gas and electricity for before we moved in.

We phoned SSE the same day as receiving the keys to have the account put in our name and let them know that the bills are not ours. (As an irrelevant side note we have since moved supplier).

Anyway, at least once a week for the past 7 weeks we have been getting letters, all addressed to ‘The Occupier’ that are getting more and more threatening. We know these bills are not our responsibility but they are threatening bailiffs coming around. We phone SSE every time we get a letter and they apologise and say ignore it and then promptly send more.

What else can we do to stop getting them and how likely is it that bailiffs may turn up at the door? Also, can a CCJ be registered against an address (as it just says The Occupier and it’s us that live here even though we didn’t at the time period these bills cover)? I don’t want anything linked to me, even if I can contest it and prove it is nothing to do with me.

You’d think if nothing else they’d stop wasting the paper and ink, the last guy is never going to see the things. Do you think if we passed them onto the estate agents we bought through they would help?

 

If you gave them your name, details and the meter reads for the day you moved in, they should have billed you in your name for the usage you are responsible for.

Any previous usage is not your responsibility. Stop ringing them, write to them. Send all the ‘the occupier’ bills which are not for your consumption, tell them again what date you moved in and evidence that they have billed you and that you’ve paid; plus that you have no forwarding address for any previous occupant.

If they haven’t billed you in your name for the correct readings you need to sort that first.

 

I had this with a previous property (funnily enough the previous tenant they were after was an ex Barnsley player). I just ignored them and they stopped after a while.

There is no chance of them pursuing a ccj or instructing bailiffs over 50 quid, the costs of doing so would be disproportionate.

 

Thanks, we’re all sorted in terms of bills paid by us for the period of time we were with them from getting the keys until switching. We get two lots of letters, one addressed correctly to us about our usage and the ones for the previous owner entitled ‘The Occupier’. Those are for the period of time between the old owner dying and his nephew selling the house, I guess he let them know his uncle was deceased but never gave them his details for the interim period. We’ll write to them and see if that makes a difference.

 

Hopefully ours will too. It’s actually £50 odd quid each but still, point taken.

 

CCJs and credit files are registered against a person not an address. You don’t need to worry about legal action, defaults, black-listing etc.

 

Hey Jamdrop,

I have worked in the industry for years in senior positions so know it pretty well.

It is correct that you aren’t liable for the payment and it seems that your address is in a system billing loop which will continue to send out bills and letters for unpaid amounts until it’s cleared or someone manually tells the system to stop.

Do you have the dates when you spoke to them?

They will have a log of conversations on their system but you are at the will and skill of the advisor writing notes on the account, this doesn’t always happen in my experience.

If you have a log of times and dates, them I would contact OFGEM, who are the regulator for the industry. The energy companies jump through hoops to close an OFGEM complaint and your issue will get solved more promptly.

What you don’t want is your property getting earmarked for bad credit. Each property/area has credit ratings attached to as well as the person.

 

I don't off the top of my head but my husband will have all the call logs on his phone so I'll get him to check tonight. Thanks for your advice!

 

If ya need anymore help give me a shout.

 

Just phone them, say one more letter and your off to a new supplier.

Altho, I only give 1 chance to rectify these days, I would have already swapped.

 

We already have, which probably isn't helping them want to do us any favours

 

Swapperooney time then I'd say.

 

Echo what TerryN has said about contacting Ofgem, but as an addition, detail your case and send it to your MP on their parliament.uk email address, not forgetting to mention the stress this is putting you under!!...also ask that this debt is completely removed from the system, I've dealt with several cases where the company chasing you agrees to drop it and then sells it on in a bundle to another bunch of semi scrupulous incompetents who start the process again.
Email back the energy company with your case and CC in your MP.
These people don't like Ofgem, but they often work incredibly quickly when a parliament.uk email address sharpens the senses.

 

Check the supply dates against the date you completed.

If its upto the day before use it as kindling.

If it includes any time post your completion date then youll be liable for that period on a deemed rate as you automatically undertake a supply when moving into a property and do so until you switch/agree a contract.

 

And stop worrying about the bailiffs... the letters say may could possible and other such terminology.

Do something productive like go to the pub.

 

we get them for the previous occupants, but for a house they rented out in Derby!! keep sending them back to SSE - only been 3 years now.....

 

Thank you everyone for your help, I think, and hope, this is sorted now. We threatened OFGEM and got a quick and favourable response.


New problem now though:

We have had 3 letters through addressed to someone who doesn’t live here with very large charitable donations to different companies. The first 2 were for £250 a month direct debit and the third is for £500 a month. (The first 2 letters were opened accidentally in the big pile of post we got that day, the third is so I can contact the charity).

The letters list the full account number and sort code for the guy (we checked, they’re not our account numbers). We’ve tried contacting him on Facebook but he hasn’t replied. We will let the charities know that he doesn’t live here. I’m not sure if he is incredibly rich and kind but forgets where he lives (unlikely) or if someone who is angry with him is setting these up in his name and putting our address so he doesn’t know about it or what.

**** sake.