As a dual tenant am i liable for household bills not in my name?

[Tone]

Hello,

Simple questions.

My name is not on the original lease, but iam a registed tenant and all of the incoming bills, water, elec, gas etc are only in the other tenants name and not mine.

Am i liable if these bills are not paid? Will i be chased down by the government / debt collectors if the other tenant does not pay them?

Cheers

 

[thatbum]

What is a "registered tenant"?

 

[Tone]

Not sure, but my name is with the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority as a "current tenant".

 

[thatbum]

Who do you have your agreement with? The landlord? the head tenant?

 

[Colin Rice]

I wouldn't have thought so.

 

[FrugalOne]

I don't think you'd be liable at all.

Your "tenant" status would irrelevant to any agreement that you do or don't have to any other service provider - unless a contract specifically states a connection...which is very unlikely.

Fair or not...whoevers name is on the bills would be liable. My 2c.

 

[Terry_w]

I recall seeing some legislation which allows electrictry/gas companies to charge the occupants even though these companies may not have a contract with the occupant in place - they are living there with the benefit of the power/gas etc.

 

[wylie]

I recall seeing some legislation which allows electrictry/gas companies to charge the occupants even though these companies may not have a contract with the occupant in place - they are living there with the benefit of the power/gas etc.

We had tenants move from our IP to another house nearby. I opened a letter left addressed to "the tenant" or "the owner" thinking it was an information pack about putting the power back on. I thought the supplier just wanted to get their details to the incoming tenant to grab the business.

It was a final bill. No tenant name. I have no idea how these tenants managed to have power when it was not in someone's name, and they'd been there for a couple of years. I assume the bills had been paid throughout the tenancy.

I called the power company to say the tenant had moved. They asked me for the forwarding address. I told them that considering they would not disclose such information to me if I was looking for it, (and in fact would not deal with me even if the bill was in my husband's name), why on earth did they think it reasonable to ask me for that sort of private information on my ex-tenant.

Bloody cheek!

 

[Colin Rice]

I recall seeing some legislation which allows electrictry/gas companies to charge the occupants even though these companies may not have a contract with the occupant in place - they are living there with the benefit of the power/gas etc.

Makes sense that they could make a claim based on that premise.