Utility accounts after a death

MOH

Anyone any advice on dealing with ESB, Eircom accounts etc. after a death?
A friend's uncle just died and she was going to call the various companies to sort out any outstanding bills and make sure they don't keep increasing, but I'm not sure if they'll talk to her as she isn't the account holder. Are they likely to look for copies of the death certificate before they'll talk to her?

Had a quick look on both the ESB and Eircom sites and citizensinformation.ie but can't find anything useful, any relevant links welcome.

grizzly

The bills will still have to be paid until a new owner moves into the house. The responsibility until then would rest with the executor of the estate.

I.K.Brunel

MOH wrote: »

Anyone any advice on dealing with ESB, Eircom accounts etc. after a death?
A friend's uncle just died and she was going to call the various companies to sort out any outstanding bills and make sure they don't keep increasing, but I'm not sure if they'll talk to her as she isn't the account holder. Are they likely to look for copies of the death certificate before they'll talk to her?

Had a quick look on both the ESB and Eircom sites and citizensinformation.ie but can't find anything useful, any relevant links welcome.

If the uncle was an OAP then DSFA will alert the likes of ESB (because of the free electricity allowance scheme). Best advice for your friend is to give them a call; they probably have a few calls like this every day & I doubt they'll be wanting to speak to the account holder!

krudler

Generally companies dont chase down unpaid bills from deceased customers, they'll talk to someone representing the estate alright, cant exactly go through all the data protection malarkey when the person has died, its a pretty general query

Musha

Data protection dies with the person, but it has to be proven first i.e. death cert etc

sunnysoutheast

All service providers will have a "deceased" policy, that's not to say they're always followed very well.

Generally a death certificate will have to be provided, it might be an idea to contact them all to inform them on the record and find out what their specific requirements are, e.g. will only talk to next-of-kin, spouse, executor, etc.

SSE

Greyfox

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

All service providers will have a "deceased" policy, that's not to say they're always followed very well.

Generally a death certificate will have to be provided, it might be an idea to contact them all to inform them on the record and find out what their specific requirements are, e.g. will only talk to next-of-kin, spouse, executor, etc.

SSE

Most companies accept a letter from the next of kin explaining that the account holder is deceassed

sam34

when my aunt died, i had no problem paying final bills and closing esb and phone accounts - a phonecall sufficed, no death cert necessary. (i just paid the bils myself and didnt go through her solicitor or look for it from estate, maybe thats why it was straightforward?)

the crowd that gave me hassle were chorus/ntl. the muppets kept asking to speak to the account holder, despite repeatedly being told she was dead. it took multiple phonecalls and letters before it was sorted out.

MOH

As it turned out, Eircom were no problem once they had the account number, said they'll send out a final bill straight away. not sure if she's done the others yet.

Thanks for the replies

foggy_lad

perlico will only deal with the account holder even after getting letters and copies of the death cert which they lost! and bord gais will keep charging standing charges until account is passed onto the next occupant of the house/premises.

easist to deal with in my case was sky who after ringing them on a seperate number waived the final bill of €3 and had the service shut off within an hour of ringing them.

ulster bank cancelled all direct debits on the account yet perlico were allowed to present a direct debit which was refused through lack of funds but throwing the "closed" account into the red because of charges for the rejected direct debit.