Do I have to pay the Electric Bill?

ChRoMe

OU812 wrote: »

We don't know that

It's explicitly stated in the first post.

OU812 wrote: »

Usual or unusual ?

Unusual, apologies for the typo

OU812 wrote: »

Nope, basing it on current studies. Have also worked in utilities industry for several years. Trust me on this, if the landlord passes on their names, they won't get away with it at all. It could be ten years down the line, but they will end up paying the bill (+ additional charges).

I'm sure there could be efforts, however I'd imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to circumvent. Also. if this is the case what supporting documentation would the landlord have to provide, sounds like such a facility could easily be abused? Sounds like it would be really easy to go around sticking other people for your bills.

sasta le

At least make an effort to pay some of it off.Im sure you could save money on something

Shakti

Did you pay a deposit on your accommodation?

If so it is unlikely you will get this back if there are bills outstanding, having said that though it is common for landlords in this country to withhold a deposit without reason other than they can get away with it.

I'll skip the indignation if you give over the poor student routine, plenty of us live day to day.

ABajaninCork

Forgot to ask: Is the E200 bill your share or the total bill?

OU812

ChRoMe wrote: »

It's explicitly stated in the first post.

Sorry, tired, knew that but my brain was ignoring it, but kudos on a perfect example of explicit

ChRoMe wrote: »

Unusual, apologies for the typo

I don't think it's unusual at all. It's highly likely that the LL isn't registered with PTRB (that's another thread though) as he's kept it in his name, if that's the case, the OP may have an out in terms of paying it right now (he said/she said scenario), however, if the bill is only €200 I would imagine that they've paid previous bills, thereby forming precedent. If the bill is more than €200 (€800 + €200 x 4), then it would have come up by now (a year's worth of electricity), bills have to be dealt with & there's no way the OP could claim ignorance. Ignorance is generally not accepted as an excuse for anything.

ChRoMe wrote: »

I'm sure there could be efforts, however I'd imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to circumvent. Also. if this is the case what supporting documentation would the landlord have to provide, sounds like such a facility could easily be abused? Sounds like it would be really easy to go around sticking other people for your bills.

Landlord would have taken a copy of ID prior to letting, also would be a record of rent payments, either bank lodgements, or a rent book. Although I'm not so sure in this particular case, I highly doubt anyone is dumb enough to hand over a sum of circa €1000 every month & not get a receipt for it.

It's surprisingly easy to get a RSI number for someone by making a couple of quick phone calls. If the OP gave (for example) a copy of a passport for ID, you can walk into the BDM offices & get a copy of a birth cert for €10. From this you can get a PPS number, by requesting it from S/W & giving them a copy of the birth cert. Do a little bit of legwork & you have all the details to pass over. ESB networks don't care who pays them, they only want to be paid & are prepared to wait for it.

I know of one case where a former friend of mine, skipped on the last month's rent & utilities. The utilities were in the landlord's name & he'd give a copy of the bill when it came in. He thought he'd got away with it, but eight years later when he went to get his first house connected, they told him of the outstanding amount he'd walked away from. Ended up costing him hundreds more than the original charge.

Also as I said, I've several years of experience in the utilities industry & this sort of thing goes on all the time. They're almost always caught up with. The only way of having a bill written off is to provide a death certificate & even at that, they keep it open for a couple of years in case the estate can pay it.

ChRoMe

OU812 wrote: »

Landlord would have taken a copy of ID prior to letting, also would be a record of rent payments, either bank lodgements, or a rent book. Although I'm not so sure in this particular case, I highly doubt anyone is dumb enough to hand over a sum of circa €1000 every month & not get a receipt for it.

It's surprisingly easy to get a RSI number for someone by making a couple of quick phone calls. If the OP gave (for example) a copy of a passport for ID, you can walk into the BDM offices & get a copy of a birth cert for €10. From this you can get a PPS number, by requesting it from S/W & giving them a copy of the birth cert. Do a little bit of legwork & you have all the details to pass over. ESB networks don't care who pays them, they only want to be paid & are prepared to wait for it.

I know of one case where a former friend of mine, skipped on the last month's rent & utilities. The utilities were in the landlord's name & he'd give a copy of the bill when it came in. He thought he'd got away with it, but eight years later when he went to get his first house connected, they told him of the outstanding amount he'd walked away from. Ended up costing him hundreds more than the original charge.

Also as I said, I've several years of experience in the utilities industry & this sort of thing goes on all the time. They're almost always caught up with. The only way of having a bill written off is to provide a death certificate & even at that, they keep it open for a couple of years in case the estate can pay it.

First thanks for the interesting post. I have to admit its been the best part of a decade since I've lived in Ireland. I just find it an amateur mistake to leave the bills in the LL's name, however I'd imagine current conditions have lead to many people becoming landlords that never intended to.

I think it is a he said/she said at the moment, and the OP would have to never put their name on another utility bill with that company if they didnt want to pay up in the future. Do ESB and the white label resellers share customer records?

Paybel

YbFocus wrote: »

he seems to have no want to pay the bill just weasel out of it.
That really gets on my nerves. Op just pay the bill for God's sake, it's your responsibility.

Here here!!!! - Totally agree!!

If he starts running away from €200 now - he'll never learn to pay his way and will screw people over in the future.

Cop the hell on @CurryChips and pay the money!

Shakti

Paybel wrote: »

Here here!!!! - Totally agree!!

If he starts running away from €200 now - he'll never learn to pay his way and will screw people over in the future.

Cop the hell on @CurryChips and pay the money!

How do work that out?

The brightest minds head to exchanges to trade pennies in 'HFT' company's right out of college, is that what anyone would call "paying their way".

green123

cali_eire wrote: »

I almost get the feeling that some people are here for a point scoring exercise rather than to help anyone figure out an actual solution. The sad thing about these harsh responses is that they will discourage other people from seeking advice here for fear of a moral lashing also. I am sure many of you would have handled the situation better than the OP and that's admirable but lets try to not make treads like this about putting people down.

if somebody deserves a moral lashing then there is nothing wrong with giving it to them.

Paybel

@Shakti

It was more along the lines of learning to pay their way!

I've lived in rented accommodation where previous tenants never paid bills, the LL said they screwed him over big time, didn't pay loads of bills, even kicked in the oven and had to be replaced (when I moved in, there was brand new one installed)

Even had a Garda detective call around to the house looking for one of them, one of the evening (but that was for a check point and they never turned up to the Garda station with the drivers licence the following day or so!)

I'm just speaking from experience of people purely taking the p**s and LL's having to deal with crappy tenants and what they leave behind!

slimpickens

Cut out the curry sauce. Plain chips are a lot cheaper - this should help the finances.

Shakti

@Paybel

I unfortunately have had awful experiences with LL's, for instance but not in isolation .......

Recently I tried to get a deposit refunded to an elderly lady, when she moved out of her accommodation it was examined and approved by an independent examiner to be in top condition (much better than when she moved in) and signed off on, all rent was up to date and all bills payed in full, with oil in the tank (not a lot but enough to welcome a new tenant). The LL would not refund the deposit and reveled in the fact that she could get away with it, a more hateful person than her I have never met.

So you realise it's a two sided street, in this case the OP is finding it hard to pay the ESB this isn't a crime, if his LL was legit and had the bill in his tenants name he would be able to arrange a payment plan with the ESB, which I'm sure you will agree is what mature people do when they have trouble paying their bills. So this leaves the op in the situation were in all likelihood will not be able to pay or arrange credit and henceforth led them to start a thread here about it and the possible consequences, henceforth he was met with all the bile of "tigger" and the over-bearing abusive father routine.

You pointed out in your example a lesser tenant would certainly not have made such enquiries and all the LL/ESB/Gardaí would get is two digits. So no I don't think it's fair the way the OP has been treated, quite abusive in fact in a lot of instances.

melekalikimaka

OU812 wrote: »

Also as I said, I've several years of experience in the utilities industry & this sort of thing goes on all the time. They're almost always caught up with. The only way of having a bill written off is to provide a death certificate & even at that, they keep it open for a couple of years in case the estate can pay it.

i have the opposite view,with a backround in utilities also, if its in the landlords name, its the landlords responsibility... how exactly does the ll pass this onto the tenents exactly?

Gatling

melekalikimaka wrote: »

i also do have the opposite view, ins in the landlords name, its the landlords responsibility... how exactly does th ll pass this onto the tenents exactly?

The ll gets the bill and passes it on to the tenants

There using it and running it up ,

Since when does it not apply to tenants not to pay for utilities

ChRoMe

melekalikimaka wrote: »

i have the opposite view,with a backround in utilities also, if its in the landlords name, its the landlords responsibility... how exactly does the ll pass this onto the tenents exactly?

With your time in utilities have you ever come across a situation like OU812 describes, LL providing evidence against tenants? Frankly it seems a bit too eager/efficient for an Irish utilities company judging from past experience

davidfitz22

Typical student, expects the world to pay their way. At least divide the bill and pay your share instead of outright refusing to pay.

YbFocus

davidfitz22 wrote: »

Typical student, expects the world to pay their way. At least divide the bill and pay your share instead of outright refusing to pay.

I don't accept that as a typical student, I've been a student in the past and anyone I knew paid their way fully no problem.
Your stereotype is not fair when put against 99% of students.

davidfitz22

YbFocus wrote: »

I don't accept that as a typical student, I've been a student in the past and anyone I knew paid their way fully no problem.
Your stereotype is not fair when put against 99% of students.

I apologise, it was a bit of a generalisation,I was a student myself two years ago and my experience comes from seeing the other students around me cry about money when they were on larger grants than I, all they did was drink and smoke weed every other day and had the audacity to complain about being poor.OP likes to reiterate he is a student and gives off that aura of "I'm a student gimme gimme gimme".

baldbear

Ringbthe electricity company and agree to pay €40 a month or so. Its very simple and they will understand.

YbFocus

davidfitz22 wrote: »

I apologise, it was a bit of a generalisation,I was a student myself two years ago and my experience comes from seeing the other students around me cry about money when they were on larger grants than I, all they did was drink and smoke weed every other day and had the audacity to complain about being poor.OP likes to reiterate he is a student and gives off that aura of "I'm a student gimme gimme gimme".

Oh I seen many of those too no worries
Just when people go on about everyone doing nothing in college it's not true of the majority

dubbie82

It doesn't matter if you have a contract or not. It doesn't mantter if you are student or if you are a millionaire. Nothing is free. You and your pals used electricity so you pay for it. Don't even go and find a legal loophole.

Do you have the ESB statement? If not get a copy from the landlord. And once you are at it make ammends with the Landlord because as people pointed out before it might come handy in the future to have a reference.
Once you have the statement try to figure out when and how much electricty was used and then get on to your former housemates and make them contribute too.
Also it probably won't hurt to ring ESB and cut a deal with them and agree on a payment plan.

Just wondering are there any other issues between you and the landlord? I am not sure anyone would try to get a court order for 200 euro.

I am not giving you legal advise, I just tell you what I would do in you situation.