Bord Gáis Disconnection in Vacated Rented Property

voodoo child

I moved out of rented accommodation, closed off both the electricity and gas accounts, and paid off the outstanding balances on both. When I was closing the gas account I was told that If the gas connection of the property wasn't registered into a new name within 10 days then it would be disconnected and I'd be charged the disconnection fee. I informed the owner of the property of this multiple times however he refused to register the gas into his name.

The apartment was left uninhabited, a few months passed and then I was contacted by what I think was a debt collection agency acting on behalf of electric Ireland, telling me that I'm required to pay a €67 "Attempted disconnection fee" for the property.

Has anybody else been in a similar situation?

The landlord is refusing to pay the €67 and electric Ireland are insisting that I'm liable for the fee even though I did everything I could to get the landlord to register the gas account into his name short of holding a gun to his head.

recyclops

if you have closed a utility account in your name with a company any charges after that date are nothing to do with you so i wouldnt pay it.

the process is correct regarding disconnection of a property for safety reasons if it is in nobodys name (this is both electricity and gas) and any landlord worth their salt will know this

find out the dates of the attempted disconnection if possible and if its after your move out date then you are not liable

dudara

Moving this to Accommodation & Property - we can bring it back to Consumer Issues if you don't get good advice there.

dudara

Michael D Not Higgins

I'm not sure how they can make it the closed account owner's problem if the account is not registered within a certain time period. I thought this was dealt with via a reconnection fee rather than a disconnection fee. Under their terms and conditions they list the following for terminating your account:

d. Where the supply of Natural Gas is disconnected due to your default, you will pay us all expenses reasonably incurred and the cost of disconnection and of subsequent reconnection, if any.
e. Further information in relation to our policy and procedures for causing Meters to be locked or premises to be disconnected from the Natural Gas network is set out in our Code of Practice on "Bill Payment" which may be obtained by contacting us in accordance with Condition 21.

Since you paid and closed the account, d doesn't apply. Condition 21 is just a list of their contact details, so I would get in contact with them and inquire about what the fee is about and how you could have possibly prevented it (if it is down to the landlord's actions or lack thereof).

voodoo child

Electric Ireland informed me that prior to attempting disconnection they sent letters addressed to "The Occupant" of the apartment (the landlord ignored these) and they also called the landlord directly and he refused to register the gas connection into his name. They were sympathetic enough to my situation but basically told me that I was liable for the fee and there was no way that they could make the landlord liable, and that when I closed the account I accepted their terms and conditions regarding disconnection.

I spoke to a manager and he waived €25 of the fee so I caved and paid the remaining €42 just to stop all the hassle. I'm going to lodge a complaint with the PRTB about the landlord, I'm pretty sure that he didn't register any of the rentals in the apartment block so hopefully he ends up getting lots of fines.

Incidentally there is now somebody living in the apartment and they have a fully functioning gas connection.

astrofool

Dealing with fixed utilities like electricity and gas is painful in Ireland, I would have just put it in the landlords name.

ted1

astrofool wrote: »

Dealing with fixed utilities like electricity and gas is painful in Ireland, I would have just put it in the landlords name.

Exactly, just give lanflords name and address it to the property

housetypeb

Was it the debt collection agency or Electric Ireland that you paid?