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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Tenant left with debts

58 replies

PavingSlabRed · 01/02/2020 07:56

Tenant of many years has now moved on. Found that unbeknown to us, he had swapped the gas and electric meters to prepayment ones. After several weeks of sorting it out, it has become apparent that the tenant left debts of £7000 on the gas and £4000 on the electric bills. I have been told by the energy provider that we don't have to pay the tenant's debts. They have refunded us for the money we have accidentally paid off the tenant's debts when the money we were putting on the meters was being swallowed up.

My question is however, will the house be "Blacklisted" even though the tenant has moved on?

OP posts:

Igotthemheavyboobs · 01/02/2020 07:59

Jesus, how long where they there to have racked up those kinds of debts?

Pipandmum · 01/02/2020 08:02

Doesn't look like it if the utility companies have said you are not responsible. Have to say they are pretty good about it these things in my experience. I bought a house at auction and got bills for a previous tenant owing about £4000 for water. I rang said they no longer lived there and that was the end of it.

andyjusthangingaround · 01/02/2020 08:02

No, my question is, how big is the place!
We are not talking about Frogmore Cottege now, are we? 😂

slipperywhensparticus · 01/02/2020 08:04

No they will pursue the debtor they cannot hold anyone else responsible for the debt

yeraballoon · 01/02/2020 08:04

The utility companies have said you're not responsible so how would the address be 'blacklisted'?

leckford · 01/02/2020 08:06

Surely a prepayment meter is where you have to put money on a card? Do you mean he by passed the meter, illegal and dangerous

Debts belong to the person who run them up not the house

Were they running a cannabis farm?

collywobblescar · 01/02/2020 08:08

How have they managed that on a prepayment meter?! We have one and the most it lets you owe us £15!

Sounds like a cannabis farm!

cookiemonster5 · 01/02/2020 08:09

There is no such thing as "blacklisting". That's a myth that was dispelled years and years ago.

WatchingFromTheWings · 01/02/2020 08:12

Surely a prepayment meter is where you have to put money on a card? Do you mean he by passed the meter, illegal and dangerous

I'd imagine the debts were run up and the meters put in as a result. I'm very surprised the utilities let it get that bad first though.

Houses don't get black listed, people do. I'd expect to be seeing unpaid bills coming to the house for a while though. Just return everything to sender marked 'moved'.

Original poster

PavingSlabRed · 01/02/2020 08:15

Tenant lived there 8 years. It is a 3-bed 1930s house, so not large at all.

I am also genuinely curious as to how tenant ran up such large debts.

OP posts:

MadeForThis · 01/02/2020 08:23

I imagine they ran up the debts and was cut off. They only way they could get a new supply was through a prepayment meter.

TreeTopTim · 01/02/2020 08:23

I never understood how you can run up debt on a prepayment meter. I thought once the credit and then the emergency ran out the gas/electric ran out.

I thought the 'blacklisting' of houses stopped years ago and it's now individuals who get 'blacklisted'.

TreeTopTim · 01/02/2020 08:25

Cross post with a few people there.

MargotMoon · 01/02/2020 08:28

You can't run up a debt on a PPM, but easy to run up thousands if you don't pay for a couple of years plus bills are being estimated so not necessarily correct. Energy company applies for a warrant to fit PPMs and the debt balance gets loaded on to the meter.

There's no such thing as a property being blacklisted, the debt will remain i your tenant's name.

WhatchaMaCalllit · 01/02/2020 08:29

I'm sorry that you find yourself in this situation @PavingSlabRed but I'm pmsl @andyjusthangingaround

TreeClimbingCat · 01/02/2020 08:31

First question I will ask is do you know where the tennant has gone? Because if you do I would hope you provide their new address to the utility companies.

I used to work for an electricity supplier. Who do you think pays for people who don't pay their electric bills? Everyone who does pay pays a slightly raised price for their own electric to cover what the company can't collect back in. It is a business, not a charity. And yes he would have built debt and the meters fitted as a result. The debt belongs to the tennant and not you.

PTW1234 · 01/02/2020 08:32

No such thing as being black listed, the debt is theirs and belongs to them.

The debt collectors will find them where ever they are, they will use credit file information etc to locate the new address. It isn’t linked to the property, it’s linked to the person.

Also it’s nothing to do with you, even as the landlord, it’s their personal business and you have right knowing about their personal money issues. Sounds like you have already spoken the utilities and they have noted they have now moved out, so end of really.

You may get letters to the property addressed to previous tenants - do not open them, that’s illegal and morally wrong. Just pop the back in the post and write “gone away” on the envelope.

If the utilities can’t find the customer at the new address, they may serve enforcement paperwork to the last known address, but again this is just a formality. They need to legally send a series of forms before they can obtain a CCJ etc.

If you keep sending the post back and have informed the utilities they know longer live at the property, there will be no risk of bailiffs.

WhatchaMaCalllit · 01/02/2020 08:32

Was the house used as a grow house? Intense lights will pump up the electric bills. Plants need heat as well....

NotQuiteUsual · 01/02/2020 08:33

The previous tenant in a flat we rented had all sorts of debts. It never caused any trouble. I occasionally had to call bailiffs and explain she didn't live here anymore and the landlord didn't have a forwarding address. That was literally it. I swap utilities regularly and we didn't have any problems.

PTW1234 · 01/02/2020 08:34

Sorry for all the typos - rushing off to various children’s clubs this morning!!!

userxx · 01/02/2020 08:35

I don't understand, how can he have ran up debts on prepayment?

NotQuiteUsual · 01/02/2020 08:36

And you'd be surprised about the utility debts. Someone I know had similar amounts. For a small 2 bed flat, they lived in it for about 3 years, but basically kept the heating on all the time gaming pcs and he ay constant electric use. From what I gather they just ever bothered setting it up when they moved in. Took a few years for the company to twig and by that point they were in thousands of debt elsewhere too, so they had no way to pay.

PTW1234 · 01/02/2020 08:36

They where likely put on a prepayment meter because of the debts!!

AllergicToAMop · 01/02/2020 08:37

You and your property should be fine as far as I remember. We moved into a property where previous tenant left nearly 2k debt on electric.
I have no idea how
We were refunded too and debt was taken off the meter. Agent gave the company forwarding address for the tenants.

Smallinthesmoke · 01/02/2020 08:37

I think also that you need to warn your new tenants.
We moved in somewhere where the previous person had skipped off without settling council tax. Had visits from the bailiffs every few months, as the debt kept being sold on. The new people living in the house might been well advised to keep handy proof of their ID and when they moved in, to show at the doorstep. I kept having to explain the same thing again and again, it seemed that The System couldn't understand they had moved ages ago.
The bailiffs were perfectly pleasant by the way but they did keep waking us up as they come early in the morning

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