Tenants didn’t move utilities into their name, who is liable

[ChickpeaFlour]

we had nightmare tenants in our flat we outgrew (we are renting purselves elsewhere) and I just found out they never changed bills to their name . I have meter readings from when they moved in but they have gone no contact and Thames Water is saying we owe £650 as it’s still in our name . Very stressed and grateful for any advice

Ignore me. I misread!

If you had a tenancy agreement in place you should be able to give that to the utility companies to prove you weren’t living there

Thank you . Yes we did but Thames water doesn’t seem to care and says it was in our name. So kind of you to reply as so stressed about this ! Thank goodness I told council they were the new tenants at least

Please try not to stress. You have a TA which proves you were not living there. Send everything over to Thames Water, email so it's recorded.
I completely understand how a big bill hanging over you at the moment is awful. But I really can't see his Thames water would be able to chase you for the money.

I really appreciate the kind perspective as we’ve had over £2k of structural damage from them too so been under a lot of stress

Does your tenancy agreement have clauses in it that state the tenants are liable for utilities? It's pretty standard in most agreements. We often had tenants who didn't do final meter readings when they left and often didn't pay the final bill. If it's metered water you need a meter reading (photograph) of when they moved out (and in) and send copies of tenancy agreement plus reading to Thames Water. It's up to them to chase the tenants. I believe there is a national register water companies use to track people down. Also, believe it or not, some tenants are ignorant of swapping utilities particularly water supply into their name ie don't realise there's a charge for it!

yes It was a standard agreement through an estate agent and our water isn’t metered. We’ve got a log of electric readings and photos if they’ve done same there.
thank you

Did you not do a last meter reading and give the utilities that and tell them it was going to be tenanted with their names? That's what I do. How did you not get any bills? Surely you had mail redirected to your residence?

You are more organised! No I just closed our electrics I’m fairly sure but with water just stopped the direct debit and it was an oversight as I thought they’d open their own account as we always have. Naive of me. I did ask Thames water why noone contacted me in a year?

Whilst the tenant is responsible, you have been irresponsible. It is down to you to advise the company that you are no longer responsible for a bill, and providing the details of the new account holder, if know, which it was; as stopping the DD does nothing other than to advise them you are choosing not to pay. It doesn't advise them why you are choosing to stop.paying, or whk should be paying instead.
You say they haven't contacted you in a year, but they probably have, to the supply address in your name that is on their records and either the tenants binned the letter marked as RTS and put back in post box.
So yes, whilst the tenants may have been responsible for the bill you are probably, a d should be liable as you made no effort in a year to let the water company know who the new bill payer was, or even that it was no longer you, so I can see why they are making it difficult for you to pass rhe debt on.
You should just pay the bill and chalk it up to a lesson learned and in future not assume everyone is a mind reader.

The plot has thickened as I searched my emails and I have proof I had indeed told them about us leaving and the tenants starting as have a bill named ‘final bill ‘ just before their tenancy started . So what has happened is they never then bothered signing up and Thames Water has decided to put the cost on us as landlords as their small print I found on their website says if there’s any dispute about payment with tenants the landlord has to pay !
The other thing in my favour is that they have not once contacted me in the entire year of the tenancy to ask any payment even though my account has our correct home address and is registered for paperless billing to my email address.
so I don’t really know if we can do anything but it’s really Stressing me still

If you've got a standard agreement then saying tenants are responsible for utility bills then it's time to formally remind them of that. Do you want to keep them as tenants? Sounds like you could do better. But get the bills paid off first

They’ve left having damaged the property badly which didn’t tell us and then went no contact. they already owe way more than the deposit and don’t answer calls or anything . It’s taken us a month to fix the place

We did pay for a proper inventory with photos and have proof of all meter readings etc

Did you take a Deposit from them?

The deposit is still with the holding company . We’ve been working out the damage and nearly there it’s already over the deposit

All you can do is sent tenancy agreement copy to water company along with date they moved out. In future if a new tenant moves in ring water, gas, electric and council tax on day tenant moves in whilst tenant is in room with you. Get tenant to speak on phone. Take photo of all electric, gas readings with newspaper with date on in image also. Try to get tenant to hold newspaper and be in photo if possible.