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ESB Bill being paid by previous owner of house

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  • 26-07-2011 11:15am
    #1
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭


    Hi All

    Got a call from my landlord yesterday asking if I had ever received a esb bill in my 3 years at the house. I said I had but thinking about it we haven't been receiving them lately anyway and possibly not at all but I kept this to myself partly on account of embarrassment for not knowing.

    The Landlord then told me the previous owner of the house from 5 years ago thinks they have been paying the esb bill for the house for last 5 years.

    My probable solution is to get proof from the previous owners bank statements and esb bills that they have being paying this for my time in the house and if they have fair enough I'll pay them a quarter of the entire bill for those 3 years. A quarter is what I'm paying because 4 is the maximum occupancy of the house in my time there. I think that's fair enough. Obviously I will also be changing the bill over to my name going forward as well.

    The reason I raise this is to hear other peoples thoughts and if anyone has similar experiences or what they would do and if the majority of the blame rests with me for not noticing esb bills never came to be paid, the present landlord for not arranging this when the house changed ownership or the previous owner for not noticing about 30 unaccounted debits in their bank account over a course of 5 years.

    FinallyI think esb bills have came but have stopped in the past while so I actually don't think this has been going on for 5 years like the previous owner of the house says but time will tell.


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    #2
    muletide
    Registered Users Posts: 1,506 ✭✭✭muletide


    Sorry if I misunderstood you but, you are only willing to pay a quarter of the bill for the electricity you consumed over the past three years?


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    #3
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    You misunderstood. I shared the house with 3 other people in this time so a quarter is what I owe.


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    #4
    muletide
    Registered Users Posts: 1,506 ✭✭✭muletide


    Dots1982 wrote: »
    You misunderstood. I shared the house with 3 other people in this time so a quarter is what I owe.

    Well then, that is a different matter.

    In that case paying 25% is perfectly fair. You may run into snags depending on who signed the lease for the rental of the property. If you were the sole signatory then there is a chance you may be liable. My advice would be to contact threshold on this.


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    #5
    demakinz
    Registered Users Posts: 1,047 ✭✭✭demakinz


    How did you not relies you hadn't paid for ESB in 3 years? Its the main bill in any house.
    Did Esb stop sending out letters to the house, that seems a bit strange.


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    #6
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    I wasn't the only leaseholder but there have been people coming and going in the house over the past few years so it would be completely up in the air for who owes what.

    The first thing I have to establish is for how long the previous owner has been paying the bills and thats really up to the previous owner of the house to show me.

    The present landlord is contacting me about this after been contacted by the previous owner. I'll be contacting him this evening to discuss it further.


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    #7
    Quazzie
    Registered Users Posts: 28,857 ✭✭✭✭Quazzie


    What kind of an idiot is the previous tenant who is paying bills for three years on a house they have no connection with.


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    #8
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    demakinz wrote: »
    How did you not relies you hadn't paid for ESB in 3 years? Its the main bill in any house.
    Did Esb stop sending out letters to the house, that seems a bit strange.

    Because I am of low intelligence obviously.

    I shared the house with 8 people in that 3 years and there was another 2 years before that when the owner was gone so I defenitely wasn't the only person not to notice. The ESB may have sent letters but they weren't in my name or anyone elses name in the house so I wouldn't open them. Perhaps I will in future.

    Just to stress this may have only been going on for a few months or longer or perhaps 5 years.


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    #9
    28064212
    Registered Users Posts: 10,494 ✭✭✭✭28064212


    Dots1982 wrote: »
    My probable solution is to get proof from the previous owners bank statements and esb bills that they have being paying this for my time in the house and if they have fair enough I'll pay them a quarter of the entire bill for those 3 years. A quarter is what I'm paying because 4 is the maximum occupancy of the house in my time there.
    Seems pretty fair. Would definitely be looking for proof that the bills were paid.

    As to whose fault it is, like most things, it's a mix of everyone's to varying degrees. If you can come to an amicable solution like the one above, playing the blame game is fairly pointless

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    #10
    Rasmus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,075 ✭✭✭Rasmus


    It's simple. Did you or someone you know ever open an ESB account in your name at this address? If not, the issue is between your landlord and the previous owner.


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    #11
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users Posts: 8,364 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    It is actually between the previous owner and the tenants really. They used it he paid. The LL hasn't benefited one bit. There is obviously fault on lots of parties but the LL should only facilitate payment and that is a good will gesture.

    The previous owner made the biggest mistake but the hardest thing to believe is no tenant realized they weren't paying anything for electricity.


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    #12
    wild_cat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,291 ✭✭✭wild_cat


    We didn't receive a bord gas bill for a whole year. It turned out they were re directing them to china... as the previous tenant had gone home. The LL told us that the letting agent was looking after the gas bill when we moved in so we thought nothing more of it. As soon as any other bills came through the door they were put into my name... so ESB.. Television licence.. UPC and bins were all changed into my name in the first few weeks of the tenancy. If bord gas had of sent a bill to the house this would have been done to. But they didn't....,

    It turned out that we were liable for the whole thing as the bills hadn't been paid. We also didn't have in writing what the land lord had told us.


    But in this case it might be different as the bills were being paid.

    But how the previous tenants didn't notice money going missing in unbelievable.... first rule when moving out of somewhere is to get everything out of your name that's tied to the house.


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    #13
    saa
    Registered Users Posts: 2,194 ✭✭✭saa


    A bit lost here...

    Who's name is the account in, only they can get the relevant information


    When the previous tenants who think they were paying the bill for five years move they are supposed to inform ESB of their address change and change of MPRN
    so its their fault or ESB unless you are in charge of the bills.


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    #14
    Aprilmay
    Registered Users Posts: 282 ✭✭Aprilmay


    I just can't believe that people are sharing a home and they didn't ever discuss how they are dividing/paying bills :confused:


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    #15
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    saa wrote: »
    A bit lost here...

    Who's name is the account in, only they can get the relevant information


    Its in the previous owners name and the bills are paid in from their account, at least that is my information at the moment


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    #16
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    Aprilmay wrote: »
    I just can't believe that people are sharing a home and they didn't ever discuss how they are dividing/paying bills :confused:

    Well we did for the bills that came, sky and bord gais. We never got esb bills and we never missed them which I guess is stupid.

    I would have thought the most unbelievable thing was that people may have been paying a bill for 5 years and never noticed.

    Perhaps the previous owner was adam clayton: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/u2-star-tells-court-housekeeper-may-have-taken-836418m-1981757.html


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    #17
    Aprilmay
    Registered Users Posts: 282 ✭✭Aprilmay


    Dots1982 wrote: »
    Well we did for the bills that came, sky and bord gais. We never got esb bills and we never missed them which I guess is stupid.

    I would have thought the most unbelievable thing was that people may have been paying a bill for 5 years and never noticed.

    Perhaps the previous owner was adam clayton: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/u2-star-tells-court-housekeeper-may-have-taken-836418m-1981757.html

    I understand that but surely you guys must have known that it wasn't free and it was mounting up somewhere-You could have contacted the landlord or the ESB to see if you could find out where the bill was or who was paying it.


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    #18
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    Aprilmay wrote: »
    I understand that but surely you guys must have known that it wasn't free and it was mounting up somewhere-You could have contacted the landlord or the ESB to see if you could find out where the bill was or who was paying it.

    All I'm able to say is that no, I honestly never noticed that we weren't getting ESB bills. Should have done but to be honest when bills come I pay if they don't I don't think about them.

    I honestly think we were paying esb bills like two years ago and then something might have happened like the account might have been changed to my name by previous tenants who moved out and perhaps ESB botched this and moved it back to the old name. Wouldn't surprise me.


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    #19
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users Posts: 8,364 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    You found out at one point you weren't paying for gas and that never made you question or wonder about the other bills?

    It sounds unlikely and if it went to court it would sound that unlikely to a judge. If I was the guy who paid the bills or the landlord I wouldn't believe you.

    It just doesn't ring true. Not saying you are lying just what sounds likely from an objective view point.


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    #20
    Dots1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,957 ✭✭✭Dots1982


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    You found out at one point you weren't paying for gas and that never made you question or wonder about the other bills?

    It sounds unlikely and if it went to court it would sound that unlikely to a judge. If I was the guy who paid the bills or the landlord I wouldn't believe you.

    It just doesn't ring true. Not saying you are lying just what sounds likely from an objective view point.

    I don't think you've read my posts properly, who's talking about going to court and also where did I say anything about that I wasn't paying gas at one point.


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    #21
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users Posts: 8,364 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Dots1982 wrote: »
    I don't think you've read my posts properly, who's talking about going to court and also where did I say anything about that I wasn't paying gas at one point.
    Sorry attributed another post to you. It is very hard to believe anybody would not notice for a long time they weren't paying electricity.

    If the person who paid the bills gets annoyed enough he might go to court


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    #22
    wild_cat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,291 ✭✭✭wild_cat


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    You found out at one point you weren't paying for gas and that never made you question or wonder about the other bills?
    .

    Was that aimed at me.

    We didn't go to court and paid the whole thing off in full..... We didn't even kick up a fuss once they told us. We just paid it. Not bad for a bunch of 20 year olds new to renting.

    I'm not lying about this either... we actually believed what the landlord told us...


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