Tenants changing and closing electricity accounts casuing disconnections

annoyedlandlord

Hi all,

I'm am at my wits end. My tenants changed the electricity supplier to Airtricity from ESB. They told me after they did it and I said OK but change it back at the end of the tenancy. I reminded them of this in November as they were due to move out in December - I got all the assurances.

What has happened?
They moved out on the 29th December having closed the accounts on December 16th. They gave Airtricity my name and that was it. I heard nothing from Airtricity and called them to settle the bill for the period of 16th - 19th December with meter readings. They could not find an account without either an account number or MPRN number. I asked the tenant for these and he said he didn't have them or had lost the paper work!!!! Either way i didn't get them. When i told airtricity this they finally found the address today and informed me that i was due for disconnection. I signed up with them and an hour later received a call from ESB Networks informing me that i had been disconnected. Airtricity are now charging me a fee of E117 to reconnect. They claim that they sent a postcard with a ref number on December 24th, which still has not arrived ! Lovely that they count 12 days of Christmas when the work out their disconnections times! Despite raising a complaint for disconnecting without giving any contact or making any allowance for Christmas postal issues and current weather conditions which affect delivery of post, they stand by their charge and disconnection decision. They referred me for disconnection calling it 'non-payment'. The charge for the period was E24!

Firstly, how can a tenant get away with this?
Secondly, how can the supplier justify this?
Thirdly, is there anything i can do with airtricity?
Fourthly, are there any regulations or laws to protect landlords and property?

I feel my account was hijacked by both the tenants and Airtricity. Do i have any control over supply in my own house?

Thanks, I'm frazzled!!!!!!

Davy

You might be better posting in the Accommodation & Property forum.

I don't think their is anything you can do unfortunately. Airtricity or other suppliers don't take any messing now with disconnections.

The charge for the disconnection will have to be paid, because they have to pay ESB networks to do the disconnection. They will have to be paid the reconnection too.

Rev. BlueJeans

Pretty much.

Relationships between landlords and tenants can be fraught with difficulty, it's unusual on this forum to see a problem from the landlords perspective.

Usually the advice to mobile tenants is to submit a start and finish reading as appropriate. At least they did this and didn't leave you to pick up the tab. As with ESB or any other supplier, once an account is closed, a disconnection request is issued. This can be cancelled either through the supplier, or if networks shows up at the door and someone new is present who can take things over.

I'm surprised (but not overly) that Airtricity couldn't locate an MPRn on foot of an address and issue a market message to ESB to cancel. It's literally 20 seconds work, and would have saved you the charge.

Networks are not going to carry out supplier calls for free, so the supplier has to pass on the cost.

On second reading, are you saying Airtricity issued a disconnection for non payment over €24? As opposed to a standard disconnection (as happens when a vacating tenant closes the account).

To answer your questions:

Aside from throwing out the bills, if the tenant didn't leave you with monies owed, then they've done little or nothing wrong.

Supplier charges, I've covered above.

Not a lot you can do with the supplier, but if it were a non payment disconnection (NPA), then you would have considerably more leeway than €24, and that's all I'll say about that.

As a landlord, and without preaching to you, you should be well aware of your responsibilities and rights under the law!

And no, the account was in the tenants name and presumably they were on top of it, ownership is not an issue.

astrofool

You should keep a copy of the MPRN number yourself, it is a pain, but I wonder if you can advise airtricity/ESB that when a tenant is moving out, the bill should lapse to your name.

When I moved out of the last apartment, I made sure electricity went under the landlord's name, and when I moved into a house, first thing I did was ring ESB and bord Gáis to prevent disconnection.

annoyedlandlord

The supplier was ESB when the tenant moved in. They changed it and told me after i relayed a story about airtricity disconnections in a conversation.
Firstly, tenants just wouldn't give me details of the account.
Second, the claimed to tell airtricity i was the landlord and taking over the account when the closed it - but airtricity didn't record this information and sent a general card (arrived today) to the occupier.
Thirdly, in advance of their departure they promised to return the supply to ESB, the supplier when I was using when they moved in.

Just cause they say they will though means nothing - and it is very difficult to keep record if you didn't make the change and you can't force people to supply you with the information you need.

With regard to Airtricity, the phone staff refused to bring the account up without numbers on first two calls, insisting it would be easier to get the numebrs - yeah right.
On next two calls they finally tried to find the account - and then in the middle of dealing with it - cut me off. On ringing back they transferred me to a voicemail box and then cut me off.

On the next call they signed me up and then told me that i was scheduled for disconnection but they would see if they could change it - apparently they couldn't.

Somehow i got a call from ESB networks who told me i was disconnected and that the call out was for non payment.
I called again and Airtricity claim it was because the address did not have a contract, and i signed up 'just too late'.
ESB networks reconnected me today and told me again in person that it was disconnection due to non-payment - and yes, the bill is only E24.

Airtricity say they have a policy of disconnection if no contract is signed and claim to have no obligation to contact the owner or occupiers in writing. But they ordered the disconnection for a different reason.

Very vexing.

Thanks for all the comments.

Yes, I am aware of legistlation! But I don't claim to know it all - and even if you think you do, try and keep things running smoothly, there will always be some person, system or piece of bureacracy that will catch you.

Also, getting messed about does not aid a clear mind!

Victor

Hang on, why do you have to pay fees? Surely the disconnection fee is a matter between Airtricity and their customer, the former tenant.

That you tried to create an account is irrelevant as the order to cut off was already given.

Rev. BlueJeans

For non payment, where the outstanding isn't cleared, they may try to recoup it from the former, in case of owner, or new occupier, Vic.

Rev. BlueJeans

Once a request comes from the supplier, op, it has to be acted on by Networks within 5 days, usually.

So quite quickly, I'm afraid.

eoghan.geraghty

OP , once a tenant has moved out and cancelled his/her utility account he/she is not going to chase up the utility account.
The tenant fulfilled his/her obligations by closing the account and paying off the outstanding balance, which sweems to be the case.
Neither ESB nor Airtricity should be expected to keep an account open when there is nobody's name on the account, why should they?

It was your responsibility to get your name put onto the account.
If you had your MPRN number you would have resolved this matter easily.
Why did you not have your MPRN number for a property you own?

astrofool

Also, is the security deposit not for this very purpose? You should be able to take it from their deposit (unpaid bills) if they didn't ensure that the electricity hand over was handled correctly.

I'd also see it as the tenants obligation to transfer any utilities to the landlord when leaving, as the name on the account, they are the only one who can do this (unless a landlord has refused to give them enough information to enable the changeover).