Ex-Tenant debt on prepay energy meter

[Archedbrowse]

So, our tenants stopped paying rent in October and have now done one from house leaving it in complete state. Stolen fixtures & fittings including smoke alarms. Dog that wasn't supposed to be there ripped up carpets, destroyed doors etc. Anyway, getting to point, husband has gone today to asses damage start to tidy/clean and there's a debt on the elec meter that he's had to pay off, then top up, in order to use Hoover. Google not helping (just lots of info on how poor old debtors can avoid repayment) does anyone have experience/know if this can be claimed back by us?

I moved into a rental with a big debt on the mter. It isn't your problem. Ring the supplier and ask for the key to be reset and the debt wiped. You'll need to take the key to a paypoint to implement this.

the debt is then assigned to your tenant. You can't claim back what you've already spent, that's a lesson to learn.

Thank you for replying, sorry I didn't see it, I'll have to configure some notification settings. Thanks for advice, looks like we're writing it off this time but I'll remember your advice for future ref.

always worth an argument with the electricity company; you've nothing to lose with a phone call.

and to think there's someone on another thread bleating 'most landlords don't give a toss about tenants'. Bet she won't want to hear about this!

hope you had malicious damage insurance as I doubt any deposit would cover this.

Yes luckily we had insurance that covered things like that and also some of the non-payment of rent. The letting agency were useless, never checked property, no efforts to pursue guarantor, tried to claim their % fee from the rent every month even though failed to collect it. We've actually accepted an offer on the property at a huge loss as we were just throwing good money after bad. We'll have to take out a loan to cover the shortfall but at least there'll be a date that will be paid off and won't have endless stress and expense of fees to letting agents who do nothing, maintenance, repairs etc.
I think tenants think landlords are all big property magnates really not the case!