Estranged husband has changed online his name to mine on energy bill.

[Janebigwither]

I am looking for advice a situation which has risen concerning my energy bill.

I am going through the divorce. In 2022, as part of a support agreement, my separated husband stated via his solicitor that he would pay the utility bills, gas and electric on the marital home where I live.

He continue to do this to my knowledge until recently. I had asked him many times by email to provide breakdown or how much he paid per month on the energy bills but he has always refused.

I have now found out that in January 2024, he had kept his address for the energy company as him still living at the marital home.

He went online and changed the bill payer from himself to me, using my old marital name. He also gave them my telephone number. I now find I have an account all set up in my old name which I have not arranged.

I changed my name legally two years ago via deed poll. So it’s clear I did not give consent.

I have now received a bill from the company for £4000. It has transpired that he has not been paying the energy bills as he agreed . He has only been paying £50 a month which absolutely does not cover the cost of utilities.

I am writing to the company to inform them that I am not liable for this bill as it was done without my knowledge or consent in a previous name and that my husband has falsified his address in order to change the name and make it appear that we are still married or both resident in the home.

I am writing a letter to them as a complaint that they have now set up an account and are chasing me for the debt.

I will escalate this to the Ombudsman if I have to.

We are in the second stage of divorce at court and although an agreement was made during hearing, there were many procedural errors which skewed the settlement.

I have the option of applying to have the order set aside for a final hearing. So I have not signed anything at this time.

I have now been advised that this is a marital debt I should not sign any agreements until this has been resolved. Some of the debt may have arisen since before he left the property.

I do not have a solicitor and have been in person which has caused huge problems because I’m unsure of legal procedure. I have had no support . My husband does have legal advice and is a very high earner.

He has been financially abusive to me throughout the marriage, so I’m not surprised at this latest attack on me.

Has anyone come across this problem before? I had no idea that anyone could go online and just change a bill over to you without the company checking they have your consent, a signed form and without a contract being set up.

The energy company says that this is legal, which I am very surprised about indeed. It leaves people exposed to abuse.

I am unsure what to do and don’t know if I can prevent being made liable, but obviously I will not sign the consent order with my husband in light of his financial actions against me.

He won’t like this, but the only option final divorce hearing which will be very costly.

I have informed him in writing that he needs to come to an agreement about this new debt as he had plenty of opportunities over the last two years to inform me that he could not afford for payments. All he had to do was tell me we needed to come to a new arrangement to avoid this. Especially after I had asked him many times.

This only have been a deliberate attempt on his part to accrue a large bill and then attack me.

I believe that had I not found out about this situation now, he would have carried on paying £50 per month until the house is sold next year and then charged me an even higher bill upon leaving and once the divorce papers had been signed by signing it all over online.

I am shocked that this kind of behaviour is allowed by the energy company as it is total tantamount to fraud, and he has just been able to make me responsible for the energy bill at the touch of a button.

If anyone has any experience of this legally or could advise me as to how to proceed, I would be very grateful.

Thank you for your help.

Which energy supplier is it?

Will they give you the full account history? Sounds like they will as you know how much he's been paying?

Also make a formal complaint asap, that's your route to the Ombudsman. Complain, deadlock, escalate. Also will stop them moving toward changing you to a prepayment meter.

And have you checked the bills are accurate by giving meter readings if you're not on a functioning smart meter. If he's not been able to access the meter it's probably estimates.

It's possible to inform an energy company of a change of bill payer, but also common that people have the historic debt attributed to them in the absence of any other information.

Is anyone actually paying the bill now? Because that needs to happen, your energy used needs to be paid for. You can't expect to accrue debt on the account on the premise that someone else is liable.

I am shocked that this kind of behaviour is allowed by the energy company as it is total tantamount to fraud

well, yes.

police?

Thank you very much for the replies. I really appreciate it .

It's Octopus Energy .

I have written a complaint and will escalate to the Ombudsman if I have to.

They told me that he did this legally! I am astounded that he could do this without my consent. He has basically transferred the entire account to me !

But he has used my old martial name and misrepresented himself as still living in our family home .

I have told them that this debt must remain with him in his name.

I think his plan was to continue paying just a basic amount to keep the account open, then when the divorce papers are finalised and house sold, he can simply transfer the 4K (possibly 6K by then!) bill over to me and I will have no recourse as the settlement would be signed.

Thankfully, I have found out! He started to pay only half our privately agreed child maintenance, and so I said that I would use the CMS instead. I am having to use Collect and Pay as he's so unreliable.

He refused at all stages to tell me how much he was paying monthly and wanted to remain with our private agreement of child maintenance support and bills Well no wonder! He wasn't paying for utilities at all really. He was paying half what the CMS says he should be!

He has just bought a new sports car and yet not paying me what he should for the children.

I will be paying the utility bill from now in in my new legal name so that will be covered, but am disputing the large bill transfer of 4K from him to me.

I won' t sign my divorce papers as this is a new debt he has not disclosed on his Form E when he knew about it. I have had legal advice not to sign anything at this time.

He left in December 2021. I asked him many times how much he was paying and he refused to tell me . Said that there was "no point" . There has been a lot of financial abuse within the marriage and this is just the latest unfortunately

I did not know anything and trusted him after 20 years of marriage. God.

Should I tell the police ? Any thoughts? I don't want to waste their time.

Has he made them joint accounts again or just said that you are now solely responsible for them?

When my partner moved in with me I added him to my utility accounts. When doing so I had to tick a box to confirm that he had consented to this.

I would contact the utility company and confirm that you did not consent to be added and also that you are no longer living at the address, perhaps you could provide proof of your new address, then ask them to remove you.

Yes to contacting the police.

The account balance up to the point where he took his name off the account should just be his, but as you've not sorted the final financial order out yet, it’s a joint debt. The energy provider should not have set up an account in your name without your consent.

Make sure they keep it as two separate accounts so you can pay going forward and fight about the debt, this takes away the option of changing you to prepayment. If they won't then the Ombudsman should be able to help sort that out.

Energy companies are under tremendous pressure from govt with their debt levels as the old debts eventually get transferred to everyone's bill (we all pay extra for this, little known fact) so often it seems they forget the law/rules in pursuit of debt recovery.

If he's not living at the address you are liable for the bills if you are living there. He's been underhand by not telling you though.

My exh dis similar with B Gas. They kept adding me onto the account but like you ...myself the married name didn't exist. Best thing I did changing name it helped support them changing it over. It took 2 or 3 attempts but they did it painlessly

however, the bills had been paid.
Aside this....A divorce solicitor is an investment in your future. Please get one. When they submit the FRO to the divorce courts...they add additional info to support the case. If your exh to be has a solicitor this will be submitted to support him. You need to get submissions made for you...that would include his behaviour and this...which is v relevant re finances because of the FRO. Get a solictor.

Thank you all for your responses.

I live at the house with the children and have done since he left.

I will fight this as his name is on the bill until July 24. Thankfully at the moment, I have not signed any financial settlement, so I can raise this as marital debt.

I have written an complaint to the company and it's obvious I didn't consent as he set it up in my old legal name.

Legally, I think he should have put this on his Form E as a debt. He clearly knew about but has chosen not to disclose. Even if it is my debt and I am liable, he should have informed me legally via the Form E so this could be discussed at the hearing. So he has not followed court instructions.

We have been to a second stage financial remedy hearing (FDR) and at this rate it look like going to a final one which will be pretty hideous!

I do not know if this counts as fraud but not declaring tis debt will not look good in court and then just transferring it over to me without my knowledge. So I am going to challenge him and not sign anything until l this is resolved.

I have never been able to afford a solicitor- only scraps of legal online advice here and there. My situation means that I can never afford one and have to be a litigant in person.

I agree with this, unless I'm wrong in thinking a support agreement isn't legally binding?

Either home owner can be put on the bill when the account is created, but since you are living there and he is not, you are liable for the bill as far as the energy company is concerned.
This isn't fraud, any arrangement between the two of you has nothing to do with them so I'm not sure what you are expecting from the ombudsman.

I also don't think he has "created an account" in your name, that's not how it works. He has informed the energy company he was not living at the property, and they either asked him of he knew the name of the person associated to the address, or they found your name elsewhere (usually through credit reference agencies).