# Who is liable to pay unpaid bills after a tenant moves out?



## windo77 (8 Mar 2010)

The family in a house I am renting have given notice that they are leaving.

The utility bills are in their name. If they leave with some utility bills unpaid, will the ESB, An Bord Gais, etc. chase me to pay them?


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## mercman (8 Mar 2010)

Normally no as long as the utilities are in the tenant's names. However before you return them their deposit you might ask them to show you evidence that same has been cleared in the case that your property is blacklisted in the future.


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## Guest110 (31 Mar 2010)

They might actually disconnect the service to the house until the bills are paid. I think they would be getting this quite alot now. 

To save yourself the hassle on this why dont you install an ESB and Bord Gais token meter.


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## Magpie (31 Mar 2010)

alexandra12 said:


> They might actually disconnect the service to the house until the bills are paid. I think they would be getting this quite alot now.
> 
> To save yourself the hassle on this why dont you install an ESB and Bord Gais token meter.



You can't just install a meter, for many reasons. One being you'll be lucky to find anyone to rent from you with one, and another being they are generally only used now for people in extreme arrears.


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## MANTO (31 Mar 2010)

Magpie said:


> You can't just install a meter, for many reasons. One being you'll be lucky to find anyone to rent from you with one, and another being they are generally only used now for people in extreme arrears.


 
Not true - If you are the Owner of a property, willing to pay the meter exchange fee and there are Payzone / Paypoint outlets in your locality where credit can be purchased there is no issue.

On the other hand, if you are renting from a local authority, in bad arrears, you must seek permission from the Local Authority before the exchange will go ahead. In these cases where it is for financial hardship, the exchange fee is usually waved.


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## doubledeb (31 Mar 2010)

Its in the tenants interest to take a final reading from both the gas and elec metres when they are leaving especially if the bills are in their names. Otherwise they can be charged for energy used when they have moved out of the house.  If things are civil between ye discuss it with them if they want to take the final utility bills out of the deposit or pay them before they leave.


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## Magpie (31 Mar 2010)

MANTO said:


> Not true - If you are the Owner of a property, willing to pay the meter exchange fee and there are Payzone / Paypoint outlets in your locality where credit can be purchased there is no issue.
> 
> On the other hand, if you are renting from a local authority, in bad arrears, you must seek permission from the Local Authority before the exchange will go ahead. In these cases where it is for financial hardship, the exchange fee is usually waved.



There is the issue that most would be renters will refuse to rent from you with a meter, as they are much more expensive and more hassle. And its a renters market. You'd have to be mad as a landlord, or only intererested in a particular type of tenant......


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## Guest110 (31 Mar 2010)

The meters kWh rate is the same as a bill rate, there is no difference in price. 

My brother is a land lord and he has been stung many times with bills unpaid. He still has the bill payment set up in his houses, but it is up to the landlord to decide what is best for them to eliminate the hassle !


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## MANTO (1 Apr 2010)

Magpie said:


> There is the issue that most would be renters will refuse to rent from you with a meter, as they are much more expensive and more hassle. And its a renters market. You'd have to be mad as a landlord, or only intererested in a particular type of tenant......


 
The cost of a prepay meter is the exact same as the standard rate tariff so why would it be more expensive...

The problem is that there is a daily supply charge (as on the standard tariff) but if you do not purchase credit for say,the summer period of 3 months then the meter will have a supply charge debt of 19cent/pday x 90 days = €17.10. When you then purchase credit the meter will take 70% of your credit to pay off the supply charge debt until its cleared.


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## lion_bar (1 Apr 2010)

Don't bord gais insist on a security deposit from tenants before transferring the account into the tenants name?


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