Am I liable to pay bills if my name isn't on the account?

I was on the tenancy form (or at least I should have been), but my name wasn't associated with any energy account or anything. I moved out early and thus stopped paying the electric bill (this was agreed before hand), to be clear I didn't officially move out early in terms of the contract, I just packed my stuff, left and saw out the rest of the contract from elsewhere. Turns out that the final bill wasn't paid and now the debt collectors are trying to bully the money out of my account. Hypothetically, if it was to be taken to court or something, am I legally required to pay a bill to an account with an energy company that I didn't set up or have my name associated with?

These vermin debt collectors are using their bullying tactics of threatening my credit rating, court etc etc even though the bill they are chasing isn't under my name, I was a tennent in the house for part of the time listed in the letter (the have the move in and out dates wrong) but that was it.

Reply 1

Reue

20

Original post by Et Tu, Brute?

I was on the tenancy form (or at least I should have been), but my name wasn't associated with any energy account or anything. I moved out early and thus stopped paying the electric bill (this was agreed before hand), to be clear I didn't officially move out early in terms of the contract, I just packed my stuff, left and saw out the rest of the contract from elsewhere. Turns out that the final bill wasn't paid and now the debt collectors are trying to bully the money out of my account. Hypothetically, if it was to be taken to court or something, am I legally required to pay a bill to an account with an energy company that I didn't set up or have my name associated with?

These vermin debt collectors are using their bullying tactics of threatening my credit rating, court etc etc even though the bill they are chasing isn't under my name, I was a tennent in the house for part of the time listed in the letter (the have the move in and out dates wrong) but that was it.

If the bill isn't in your name then you have no contract with the energy provider and thus are not liable.

Do the debt collectors work on behalf of the energy company? How do they even know you actually lived there?

Reply 2

Et Tu, Brute?

OP

21

Original post by Reue

If the bill isn't in your name then you have no contract with the energy provider and thus are not liable.

Do the debt collectors work on behalf of the energy company? How do they even know you actually lived there?

Yes they are contacting me on behalf of the energy company who probably pays them to do their dirty work, they are just some private firm.

I have no idea, they must have got my details from some third party, possibly the electoral l register or something. I suspected they got it from my old estate agents, but the fact that they had my old address and my current address is fairly worrying. Oh well, 2 more months here and I'm gone, they can send all the letters they want to, they'll never even be opened. Bunch of vermin.

It is quite sad though that these people try to bully people like this. I noticed online that there is a lot of people receiving letters for bills when they weren't even living in that house, ie asking them to pay for someone else's debt, or possibly a debt that is entirely made up. Their letters are incredibly threatening and I suspect a large number of innocent people end up giving in out of fear, sad really.