Housemate left without paying ESB

aaahhh

Hi
Me and my two mates al rented out a house for the college term on a shared lease. one of my housemates ran up a huge bill with his electric heater but before getting the bill he moved out. our landlord gave us the bill for feb yeaster and it was €350 for 2 months and we got our other bill for the rest of feb and march today which is €300. Our housemate moved out on the 8th of April and left us with this huge bill which he ran up. is there any legal action we can take to make him pay his part of the bill?

Thank you.

Cathmandooo

Did you not all have to pay a deposit to the ESB when setting the account up? The deposit is for these situations.

aaahhh

Sorry i forgot to mention that it is our landlords name that is on the bill.

lau1247

surely this is too early to get into legal side of things..

Do you not have contact number to reach him?

Just give him a call explain the dates and see where it goes from there, the dates on the bill would give the period that he used.

Victor

Did the landlord not take a deposit from the errant tenant for use in such circumstances?

Are you renting the property together with a single lease or renting together, each renting a separate room?

Is there a written lease in place?

I would very much be taking the line that the landlord screwed up.

aaahhh

We are able to contact him as he is a "mate" from our hometown. well we taught he was a mate. We contacted him telling him the amount he owes and we told him the dates on the bill but he is refusing to pay. he is saying that he is skint but he has moved back home where he has a job and is not paying rent in his family home so he should be able to pay us atleast some of the money he owes

the estate agents did take a deposit from him but said that we could use that to pay off some of his rent as we all signed a joint contract at the estate agents i wished we signed a seperate one but its too late for wishful thinking now.
its the landlords name that is on the bills and he is coming around on thursday to collect the money :eek:

Victor

Call around to his place. If he is there, be a little loud (but not excessive) that you need the money. If he isn't, leave a message that you are looking for the electricity money, stating how much.

Potentially, you can sue him in the small claims court as it is a shared expense, but its rare and possibly messy.

Are you stuck with paying rent for the now vacant room until the end of year?

aaahhh

I was thinking about calling around to his house but im not sure that it would make a difference unless i speak to his mother and maybe she will force him to pay because its a really horrible thing to do to someone espically to friends.

i was wondering about the small claims court but i wasnt sure i they take cases to do with these types of disputes between housemates.

yeah me and my other housemate are stuck paying the extra rent now until the end of the year but the estate agents were really helpful and told us that we could get his deposit back at the end of the year to make up for some of his rent but we will only be getting €100 each back and the rent will cost more than that and the first bill alone will cost more then that never mind the second bill on top of it.

i wish i lived alone haha