Gas bill debt from old tenant!

GirlCake

Hi,

I'm sorry if I am not posting in the right place!

I moved in to a two bed apartment 2/3 months ago and have been sharing with a Spanish guy, he is moving out in a week and I have found somebody else to take his room.

However, he lived in the apartment before I got there for over a year and owes about 1200 for the gas bill. All this debt is from before I moved in to the apartment. A week ago our gas was cut off completely.

I want to open a new account for gas and electricity when I sign my new lease in a week and a half, but my worry is, will I have to deal with his debt then?? If I open a new account in my name and show my new lease and say that I have NOT lived with the previous tenant, should I be ok? Or will I have problems of them trying to chase me for the money that he owes? My name is not on the bill currently for the gas.




I would really really appreciate any help or advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation before with a flatmate/ex-flatmate!!

Thanks

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

foggy_lad

You just contact the gas company and open a new account in your own name!

You are not responsible for any bill that is not in your name. You will not have to show any lease or explain that the amount in arrears is not yours and any bills that come addressed to him just return to sender with address unknown or not at this address.
You will have to pay a security deposit if you don't sign up to pay by Direct Debit.

doolox

I had a similar situation a few years ago with a tenant who went owing about €700 to the ESB. The bill arrived after they had gone with no recent forwarding address and I sent it to the most recent one I had. A few bills kept coming and I opened one to see what was the situation and hence I found out about the amount owing. I rang ESB and was told that since the tenant had signed up for the bill and it was in his name it had nothing whatsoever to do with me and they would be doing their best to chase it up with the person whose name was on the bill. It would not affect the future elegibility of the house for ESB supply which was my main worry.

That was the last I heard of it.

Funky G

Both posters above me have hit the nail on the head. The debt is on the previous tenant and not the new tenant. Nor the landlord. i've been in this position with a troublesome tenant. They left high and dry and a rack of bills. Once I got the accounts transferred over, it was a clean slate for me to pass on to my new tenants.

Contact your landlord and ask for both the mrpn and grpn numbers for the gas and electricity and you can start up a new account from scratch. The landlord, if he/she was any way decent, would have had the previous tenant transfer the account from tenant to landlord for a short period of time until the new tenant (yourself) moved in. The final bill would have been sent to the previous tenant.

Cuddlesworth

Your going to have to pay a reconnection fee. I would suggest talking to the landlord, since it will most likely need to come out of his deposit.

GirlCake

Hi,

thank you all so much for your comments.

I don't deal with the actual landlord at all, only the letting agency and they are completely useless!

Actually the guy who lives in the apartment now said that he will pay the re connection fee for me because it is his fault that the gas had to be turned off at all...! So that's ok, it's not really a problem!

Phew, that's a load off my mind!

Kenno90

Tell the Landlord before he moves out, if he doesn't pay then cant his security deposit pay for it ?

accensi0n

Kenno90 wrote: »

Tell the Landlord before he moves out, if he doesn't pay then cant his security deposit pay for it ?

Yes exactly, deposit can be used for outstanding utility bills.