Name on bills in previous property

Canadel

Hi, just looking for some clarification on something please. I was a tenant in a house on a lease for my last year in college nearly two years ago now and my name was on some of the bills such as upc, gas and electricity. I didn't contact any of these companies to close my account and liability and am unsure of whether they were all paid up. Am I crazy to suddenly be worried about any outstanding bills that may have been on my account or that my name might still be on the bills as I've never received any word from any of the companies or the landlord/future tenants? I just don't want to have to ring these companies to clarify and was hoping someone here could allay any fears about arrears etc. Thanks very much.

the_syco

Canadel wrote: »

my name was on some of the bills such as upc, gas and electricity

Were you paying by direct debit, and if so, is money still being taken from your account?

Canadel

the_syco wrote: »

Were you paying by direct debit, and if so, is money still being taken from your account?

Good question. I honestly cannot remember, but I don't think money has been taken out of my account from any of the companies in a very long time, probably not since I was residing in the property or a short time after that. I have had the same bank account since before I resided there, and would probably have paid by electronic funds transfer or direct debit. The worry was mainly that they may still have my name on the accounts, that people may be paying in my name, or that they are sending bills to the property, or that there is arrears and so on-I'm most likely paranoid over this but I have seen first hand recently some of the complications that can arise from similar situations and want to make sure I'm not liable from since I stopped living at the property.

athtrasna

Close all the accounts NOW. Hopefully you've been lucky and everything is up to date but the accounts should have been closed when you moved out, if not it could be costly lesson to learned.

Canadel

athtrasna wrote: »

Close all the accounts NOW. Hopefully you've been lucky and everything is up to date but the accounts should have been closed when you moved out, if not it could be costly lesson to learned.

I cannot be held liable for any bills surely as my lease with the landlord is proof that I have not resided in the property since my move out date? And any bills in arrears would have been taken from my account or I would have been contacted about them?

athtrasna

Canadel wrote: »

I cannot be held liable for any bills surely as my lease with the landlord is proof that I have not resided in the property since my move out date? And any bills in arrears would have been taken from my account or I would have been contacted about them?

Your contract with the utility companies has nothing to do with where you live. It's possible that post has been going to the property in your name since you left. Again I say cancel those accounts first thing and try to suss out if there are arrears.

Canadel

athtrasna wrote: »

Your contract with the utility companies has nothing to do with where you live. It's possible that post has been going to the property in your name since you left. Again I say cancel those accounts first thing and try to suss out if there are arrears.

The contract still existing I understand, but surely they would cancel any services that are not being paid for? Unless someone was paying in my name which is unlikely? I will try and contact them as soon as I can thanks but I really can't believe there is a realistic chance of me owing money to them. It would be ridiculous. But I will take your advice.

thisistough

Canadel wrote: »

The contract still existing I understand, but surely they would cancel any services that are not being paid for? Unless someone was paying in my name which is unlikely? I will try and contact them as soon as I can thanks but I really can't believe there is a realistic chance of me owing money to them. It would be ridiculous. But I will take your advice.

But the point is that you signed up to pay them for a service. You never called them to cancel the service so you are still liable for it. It's no concern of theirs whether or not you still live at the property. I'd agree with above poster and make sure the account is cancelled as the foremost priority

Canadel

thisistough wrote: »

But the point is that you signed up to pay them for a service. You never called them to cancel the service so you are still liable for it. It's no concern of theirs whether or not you still live at the property. I'd agree with above poster and make sure the account is cancelled as the foremost priority

Yes, I understand that, but I have proof in the form of the lease that it was not myself who was availing of any of the services in the property since the end date of the lease, and so I should not be liable for bills for those services. I know I should have cancelled the contracts at the time but I honestly had so much going on that it just completely slipped my mind for a few months, and then obviously a few years. That is my priority now though thank you.

TheChizler

Canadel wrote: »

Yes, I understand that, but I have proof in the form of the lease that it was not myself who was availing of any of the services in the property since the end date of the lease, and so I should not be liable for bills for those services.

Where the customer lives has no bearing on the contract; you signed up for a service to be provided to a property. People pay bills for other people all the time, the billpayer living at the address of where the service is provided isn't a requirement.

Since the person living there now is using the services you are possibly paying for, you would probably have cause for recourse from them. But you owe the money to the utility until the account is closed. Call them in the morning, won't take 5 minutes.

newacc2015

Canadel wrote: »

The contract still existing I understand, but surely they would cancel any services that are not being paid for? Unless someone was paying in my name which is unlikely? I will try and contact them as soon as I can thanks but I really can't believe there is a realistic chance of me owing money to them. It would be ridiculous. But I will take your advice.

Actually no. My parents had a house rented to a crowd of construction workers, who decided they were going to pay their electric bill. When they moved out 2 years later. They managed to rack up over €12,000 in arrears and the electricity company still didnt cut them off.

A contract is a you paying for a service and getting something in return. It doesn't take into account your carelessness not to cancel outstanding accounts.

pwurple

Canadel wrote: »

. I didn't contact any of these companies to close my account and liability and am unsure of whether they were all paid up. Am I crazy to suddenly be worried about any outstanding bills that may have been on my account or that my name might still be on the bills as I've never received any word from any of the companies or the landlord/future tenants? I just don't want to have to ring these companies to clarify and was hoping someone here could allay any fears about arrears etc. Thanks very much.

Phone the utility companies to check. It will just take a few mins.

Mrs OBumble

Canadel wrote: »

And any bills in arrears would have been taken from my account or I would have been contacted about them?

Arrears would only have been taken from your account if you were paying by direct debit. Were you? Even if you didn't tell the utilities companies, did you tell the bank to cancel any direct-debits to them?

And if you think about it for a minute - the companies know your address as the old house. They may well have tried to contact you by writing to you there, but got no response.

If you are lucky, then the new occupants have been paying the bills all along.

If you are unlucky, then they have just been piling up. (If the bills weren't being paid, then it's likely that the services were cut off, rather than racking up 2 years worth of bills.)

Either way, you won't know what's going on until you man/woman up, and contact the companies.

Butters1979

OP, as others have said, regardless if you moved out and regardless if you have proof, you still had a contract with these utility companies. It doesn't matter if you were living there or using the services, you agreed to pay for these services and never cancelled that agreement.

I'm surprised you cannot remember if you paid direct debit or not. Anyway, it's possible the new tenants just got their name on the utilities and there is no money owed,
Although it's also possible you continued to rack up bills and owe a lot of money this is probably unlikely as the utilities would have been cut off long ago.

I'd say the most likely thing to happen was a combination of both. You stayed on the bills for the first few months, and then when the utility companies starting contacting the address about unpaid bills or cutting off supply, the new tenants got their names on it instead and starting paying the bills. Even paying the owed money as they were the ones in the house for that period anyway.

I'd say you're ok, but the first thing I'd do is check those accounts with the suppliers. Make sure now.

Victor

Canadel wrote: »

Yes, I understand that, but I have proof in the form of the lease that it was not myself who was availing of any of the services in the property since the end date of the lease

For all the utility companies know, that lease is something you typed up yourself.

so I should not be liable for bills for those services. I know I should have cancelled the contracts at the time

How do you reconcile these two statements?

We're not here to beat you up. Life happens. Talk to the utilities and make sure your name isn't associated with those properties anymore.

Canadel

Victor wrote: »

For all the utility companies know, that lease is something you typed up yourself.

How do you reconcile these two statements?

We're not here to beat you up. Life happens. Talk to the utilities and make sure your name isn't associated with those properties anymore.

If required, I would have contacted the Landlord to provide proof of said signed lease. I understand the onus was on me to cancel the contracts as good practice, but I still think it would be entirely unfair to have been liable for charges incurred whilst not attached to the property! If the law doesn't agree with me then so be it.

Appreciate all the advice. Rang the companies and my accounts had been closed and everything paid up about a month after moving out. I did think I had taken care of it all but I was going through a very bad patch at the time and really I was not going to rely on my state of mind at the time which is what sparked the panic recently. Lesson learnt. And the utility companies were very helpful, even Bord Gais with their fetish for data protection.

I'm amazed someone would just leave bills in their name when leaving a house, the first thing id be doing when planning to move out would be giving notice to any company that I had a bill in my name in order to cancel my account.

It is possible the other tenants are just paying the bills too, in my place most bills are in the LL's name and we just open them pay them in the post office we also had a bill in a housemates name that moved out for a while (I asked them not to cancel it for a while as I didn't want to have to open a new account in my name) and we just opened it and paid it too.

Canadel

Miguel Uneven Moth-eaten wrote: »

I'm amazed someone would just leave bills in their name when leaving a house, the first thing id be doing when planning to move out would be giving notice to any company that I had a bill in my name in order to cancel my account.

Absolutely that is the first thing to do, but things happen and sometimes people forget. It happened me and I was lucky everything turned out ok with regards bills and so on, but as others here have said, it could have been different.

Victor

Canadel wrote: »

I still think it would be entirely unfair to have been liable for charges incurred whilst not attached to the property!

You could have chased the other tenants, but that would have been very messy.

Anyway, all's well that ends well.