Debt collectors

happyfish

I'm sorry this is so long, would be grateful for any advice!

Basically I was living in an apartment last year with two others in which our electricity was provided by electric Ireland. The account was in my name but for various reasons the direct debit was set up to come from my housemates bank account. When we were moving out there was some confusion over this and my housemate said she had cancelled the electricity.

Obviously this wasn't possible as it was in my name but I didn't realise at the the time that it's not possible to cancel things on behalf of other people (stupid I know!). I didn't realise that the electricity hadn't been cancelled until several months after we moved out when I got a call from a debt collector on behalf of electric Ireland. I rang the esb directly and found out that the account was still open and that €118 was owed on it. I spoke to the landlord as I was sure that we had paid all our bills on time, and he thought it was the new tenants as the account was still open and they were somehow using it as the debts were run up after we moved out.
He spoke to them and i presumed that they had paid up as I stopped getting the debt collector calls and was able to cancel my electric Ireland account.

Recently I've started getting the phone calls from the debt collection agency again and don't know what to do. I've got a new phone in the meantime and no longer have the landlords number so I feel like I have no recourse as the debt is in my name.

Does anyone have any advice on this? I feel so stupid! Mods feel free to move if this is in the wrong place, I wasn't sure where it should go.

Atlantic Dawn

It's so messed up that the best conclusion is a €118 lesson in common sense for the future in how to setup bills. You signed up for the account, full responsibility will be with you, not with the person on the DD, your credit rating will suffer as a result of non payment.

Paulw

Contact Electric Ireland. I can move this thread to the Talk to Electric Ireland forum, if you wish.

You can check the dates of the meter readings, and when the account finally closed, etc.

Plates

Whatever you decide to do, just ignore the debt collectors. I'm not saying to ignore the debt, but make sure you only engage with Electric Ireland.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

happyfish

Plates wrote: »

Whatever you decide to do, just ignore the debt collectors. I'm not saying to ignore the debt, but make sure you only engage with Electric Ireland.

I thought I couldn't engage with electric Ireland as my account was closed? No one from electric Ireland has contacted me directly by phone, I contacted them but as I haven't been at the address for over a year now, and hadn't been at it for a while when I was first contacted I could have been getting letters for a few months I suppose?

I obviously don't want to affect my credit rating and I fully accept that I was stupid to not have closed the account, but it is frustrating that it seems this debt was built up after I ( and the others I lived with) moved out. The meter readings backed this up(I don't fully understand how this worked, and again I realise I should have taken more responsibly for this) and the landlord fully believed that the new tenants were at fault. But then again is this even possible? Shouldn't a new account have been opened in their name when they moved in? Or might this have not happened because of the existing account in my name?

happyfish

Thanks for replies by the way I know this is confusing!

Paulw

happyfish wrote: »

I thought I couldn't engage with electric Ireland as my account was closed?

Shouldn't a new account have been opened in their name when they moved in? Or might this have not happened because of the existing account in my name?

Of course you can engage with Electric Ireland. You have an account with them, with an outstanding bill. You are better off engaging with them, directly.

A new account should have been setup by the new tenants, once the previous account was properly closed.

EI: Una

Hi happyfish,

(Thanks Paul for giving us permission to post).

If you like, private message me your closed Electric Ireland account number, your name, the address that the account was registered for, and your telephone number, and we can advise you then.

Kind regards,
Una

happyfish

Electric Ireland: Una wrote: »

Hi happyfish,

(Thanks Paul for giving us permission to post).

If you like, private message me your closed Electric Ireland account number, your name, the address that the account was registered for, and your telephone number, and we can advise you then.

Kind regards,
Una

Thanks Una, will find those details and do that now.