By Steve Roulstone

I had a very upsetting and disturbing situation develop last week on a house of mine that is occupied by Tenants and has been since I moved out last December. The disturbing matter, was that I received what can best be described as a mixture between a debt letter and a threatening letter advising that my account with Utility Warehouse was overdue by some £430.00 and that if I did not take IMMIEDIATE ACTION or worse still IGNORED THIS LETTER charges could rise to over £800.00

First reaction.

Now I do not know about you, but if somebody sends me a debt letter, for no reason what so ever, it does not make me very happy – what transpired when I phoned Utility Warehouse, for it appears to have been their debt collecting agency as I was internally transferred without any delay, made me even angrier!

The facts in this case.

What had actually happened was that we had advised UW that we were moving gave them our forwarding address and subsequently paid the final invoice and closed our account, something that was easy to confirm, as the account number on the stated debt letter was different than the one on our old invoices for this same address. The new Tenants had also been in touch, but they (UW) did not approve of the paperwork sent to confirm the Tenancy and instead of trying anything else they moved straight to debt recovery letter.

 Debt has to be recovered – does it not?

The problem with this debt letter was that they immediately opened another account in my name (as Landlord) and sent the debt letter to us! Now, I know that this could never stand up in court, but I just wonder how many people are not aware? It is a fact that no debt for services amassed by one person can be the responsibility of others, owners or not. No, what UW did here was take the easy way out and send a letter to somebody to get a reaction. Well I have news for you UW it worked!

My advice.

 What I am guessing they did not expect, was that the Landlord in this case would then put this absurd situation in writing and advise all Landlords NOT to have UW as their provider. It is a fact that the Tenant (A Company) as somebody that I have dealt with professionally for several years had no intention of staying with UW and had advised them of this fact, not that UW then made contact back with the Tenant to try and address the issue direct with the person responsible for the bills! Oh no, instead they opened an account in my name without even speaking with me. Now, let’s just look at that again.

Contradiction the name of the game.

 So because they were unhappy with paperwork sent by the people who were generating the invoices, UW would not accept them for a new account. Not that they did not open one in their name, rather that they changed the name when they decided the information was not complete. Now it is what they did next that is, in my opinion, a contradiction of what appear to be their own rules!  So rather than contact the Tenant and sort it out, they opened the account in my name, even though I had not asked for one and they had received no paperwork which they could approve or otherwise!! So it seems that what was not acceptable for the correct person did not matter for the wrong person!

Soft target!

And this is the rub for me, just because we made it known where we live and what we were doing with the property, UW decided to send us the invoice for no other reason than because we were there and available. This is treating Landlords with disrespect in my book and I get fed up of being treated as second class citizens where the rental market is concerned. (I did ask them to investigate and call me back, but their offices only receive incoming calls! Says it all really) We all know what our responsibilities are and we all know this would not happen if the property had been sold! UW would not have sent the invoice to the original owner and yet we are just as liable (as in not liable at all) as Landlords or as past owners. Think again UW treat us all with equal respect and put more effort in too sorting out problems rather than shooting at soft targets!

 

 

 

 

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