ESB Bill problem

syklops

Hi,

I have a bit of a problem. I live in a rented house where I and my house mates are lease holders. A few months ago one of the tenants moved out, and the ESB bill which was in her name never got transferred over to one of us. While cleaning up yesterday I found a letter from ESB addressed to her, which I opened and it was a letter from the ESB saying they were considering legal action against us, and were considering cutting us off for non payment of the bill. Naturally, I panicked and rang them this morning to pay the bill.

Get this, I need to contact my landlord and get him/her to transfer the bill to my name before they will take any money. I asked if the electricity was going to get cut off, and they said they could not tell me because of the data protection act. And they will not accept payment from me, because I am not the Bill payer. I am pretty sure any non-state owned company will gladly accept money on behalf of anyone. But not ESB.

Has anyone any idea as to what I should do next? I do not want my electricity cut off. I am happy to transfer it into my name, but I just know that will take 10 working days or something, in which time we could be disconnected.

Thoughts anyone?

blue banana

If you have the ESB bill can you not just walk into the post office and pay the bill, or am I missing something here?

BC

I assume you have a copy of the bill?

If so then ring your online/phone banking company. Get the ESB account (you just need the a/c number) set up as a biller and then pay the bill. Alternatively go to billpay.ie and set it up there and pay. Once you've paid up then you can worry about switching the name.

I've been renting in my current place for 4 years. None of the bills are in my name but i pay them regularly without a problem.

syklops

I have set up the payment via bill pay. If this works then billpay.ie is the greatest invention since electricity

I dont understand the bureaucracy that is involved in dealing with ESB directly. Well thats not true, I do understand it. The sooner electrical supply in this country is privatised the better. Can you imagine a company refusing to accept a payment?

BC, thanks for your help man, and thanks to blue_banana.

LegacyUser

I once was in a house share - 5 people in the house. Each month time the ESB bill arrived and was paid. It was addressed to someone nobody knew or heard of. Obviously an ex-tennant and nobody had bothered to inform the ESB.

.... another thing to watch is that the bin charges are paid. We got lumped with a bill for 700 euros for bin charges and DunLaoire Rathdown stopped taking our bins. I had only been in the house a couple of days when the bill arrived!!

hooray

bump..

I have a problem in that my ex-housemate left an unpaid debt with the esb after he moved abroad. The debt was rung up in another apartment a few years ago and the debt followed him once he opened a new account here.
Anyway since he moved out we have manage to close that account and open a new one and kept on top of our bills.

I'm still afraid and quite anxious that we might be lumped with this bill by our lettings agency? He was getting legal demand letters, if letting agency find out could they withhold our deposit?
Anyone know if we are going to be held liable for his debt as we signed the lease with him?
Sorry if this sounds a bit confusing - it's a messy situation

D3PO

if the bill isnt in your name its not your responsibility period. Nobody can hold you accountable for it.

F1ngers

You can talk to ESB on boards here, http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1349.
They may help.