Legal Question on Gas/Electricity

Imagine that you swapped your gas & electicity provider over in 2003 to a cheaper supplier.
Imagine that they've been sending you a regular bill for the last few years and you've been paying it.
Imagine that other people have been moving in & out of the house on a regular basis.


Now imagine that you've just received a bill for £3300 for your electricity. Your provdier had not been sending you a combined bill all this time - they'd missed out a bill altogether and only been sending you the one for gas.

Legally are you likely to be obligated to pay.

**** off to Kazakhstan ASAP IMO.

[G]

Happened to my parents they had/have to pay it back monthly, they didnt get charge for 3 years in similar circumstances.

[Gazza77]

If the original agreement is in your name only, then you are the only one legally liable for the bill. If it is joint names, then you are jointly liable. IIRC, bills can raised and are valid for anything up to 6 years after the service/products have been provided.

Always have bills in joint names in a shared household....

same thing happen to a guy at work-he told them that it was there error and stuck to his guns-ended up getting 40% off.

quick, pack your bags and get off to Kazakhstan now!

[tigersaw]

£800 a year for leccy? heck.. you got some dodgy pot plants?

Cheers for the advice guys. It's not me, but a friend that's had a few bills recently that she could do without & I'm just trying to help.

At that price I would be getting some proper legal advice, maybe if you can prove that it wasn't you (her) using it etc. Anyway I would trawl the net for other cases, and see if there are any specialist solicitors that deal with this stuff.

If it goes to court I imagine one of the major issue is if she knew that she was being under billed and did nothing about it.

On a side note I would be moving items of high value out the house and not answering the door to strangers. At one of my previous houses we let the bailiffs in to discuss the unpaid bill of the previous tenants and they took the gas meter in January, we had no heating/hot water for a week, and got no apology or damages either. IMO companies should have there rights to use bailiffs seriously restricted. Rant over.

Hope it get sorted, i would stick to my guns they will probaly try and scare her into paying all of it upfront.