letting agency selling electricity?

Kavs

looking for some advice here,
my girlfriend and a friend of hers moved into a new apartment 3 months ago, its an old house converted into 2 apartments, she and her friend live upstairs while a family of 5 live downstairs.

The issue is that on signing the lease the agent told her that all bills would be in her name ie. ESB and gas.

Two weeks ago a letter arrived at the door from the letting agency which stated that she owed €90 for the ESB. She has since rang them looking for the bill from yourselves but has been fobbed off by them each time.

I have looked at the meter cabinet downstairs(there is no lock present) and there are 3 meters installed there(very messy).

When we were viewing the apartment 3 months ago the agent pointed out the meter which was supposedly monitoring upstairs, so i took the meter reading when they moved in but since then it has not moved and still reads the same. This leads me to believe that there is only one bill for the building and that the agency are just dividing it by 2.
(Are they therefore selling electricity?)
Where does she stand leagally with the letting agency?
any advice would be much appreciated.

Electric Ireland: David

Hi Kavs,

It certainly sounds like the situation needs to be clarified. I wouldn't be worried about the letting agency selling electricity, although I can appreciate where you're coming from.

From the point of view of opening/closing an ESB account, it is common practice for a letting agency to assume this responsibility for a tenant, and most of the time there are no issues with this. However, at the end of the day, it is always up to the account holder themselves (whoever this happens to be) to make sure their own account is in order. It sounds quite possible, from what you're saying, that the account was never put into your girlfriend's name. If that's the case, she wouldn't have been able to discuss the account details (due to data protection restrictions). I'm sorry to hear she was fobbed off as you say, although this may explain why.

But enough of conjecture... What I really need in order to be of further help to you is more concrete information, such as the address of the premises, your girlfriend's name, the MPRN (if you have it) and other details that will enable me to fill out the picture. If you PM me, I can get to work on it for you.

Thanks,

David.

foggy_lad

it is more probable that the letting agent is adding a surcharge onto the bill for your flat/apartment as they are not allowing you to see the actual bill!

Kavs

Thanks for the swift reply David,
She is going to try and contact them again one last time next week and if they will not discuss the matter we are going to take it further and contact the PRTB, (there are other issues with the apartment).

I'll get you all the details next week if this happens.

(I forgot to say welcome to boards.ie! Good to see companies providing this service.)

Electric Ireland: David

Hi Kavs

Thanks for the welcome, the response has been overwhelming so far.

Whenever you have the details ready I'll be on hand to investigate it further for you.

Talk to you again,

David.