Who needs to pay water bills

[Grampa]

I have a nice single mum tenant who looks after the property well and the rent is paid in full by the council. So I was surprised to get a email from the one of the top men in the debt collection dept of the water utility company to call them in reference to this tenant.

It appears this tenant has never paid her water bill in 2 years still moving in and all the utility company can do is send threatening letters and take her to court but as she has no money or assets they wont get anything. Also they cant cut off the water.

Apparently it is well known by certain people so they never ever pay these bills.

[Richlist]

I have a nice single mum tenant who looks after the property well and the rent is paid in full by the council.

What it really means is that the rent is paid by the local council who take it from taxes that are paid by YOU & ME.

It appears this tenant has never paid her water bill in 2 years still moving in and all the utility company can do is send threatening letters and take her to court but as she has no money or assets they wont get anything. Also they cant cut off the water.

What this means is that as the young lady in question is not paying the water bill, the rest of us ......that's YOU & ME ....pay increased bills to cover the shortfall.

Isn't the benefits culture a wonderfull thing !!!!

[Grampa]

I don't disagree with what your saying but the landlord wont give notice unless the rent isn't paid or the property was getting trashed. It would be interesting reading if it was possible to get the figures from the utility companies of how many of their "customers" behaved this way. If it was public knowledge maybe the rules would be changed.

I say all utility companies should have the power to stop the supply of services under certain circumstances.

[Melboy]

I mentioned this fact last year. I had a benefits tenant in my flat and he owed over £300 to Thames Water. He never did pay for the outstanding debt.

I complained to TW but they said it was in the hands of their debt collection service,

I then read in the paper some months later that it is not possible to cut off the water supply by law and that everyone else pays for these people who cannot pay their water bills.

He was evicted by me, well sort of, as his notice to quit coincided with his letter to me that he was leaving.

I scooped up all the water bills and sent them to TW HQ to sort out. Never heard anything back though.

[Mortitia]

and another one..........a Polish couple I had to evict and had a long running CC battle with over deposit had never paid a water bill in the whole 2.5 years of tenancy!

Somehow they just know they can get away with it. We all suffer as a consequence.

[Richlist]

Every time we get an invite from some production company that wants to record a program about landlords/ renting property/ bad tenants perhaps we should specifically raise this as an item.

I suggest anyone who has first hand knowledge or experience of this situation should write to their MP.

I'm sick to death of benefits tenants who don't pay their bills whilst affording to smoke, drink, visit the tanning studio & nail bar and take foreign holidays.

I am also of the opinion that landlords & lettings agents have a moral responsibility to the rest of us.

If you know they are not paying the bill then evict them & don't give them anything other than a poor reference. Allowing them to stay only compounds the issue. Act responsibly EVICT THEM or if you are a lettings agent refuse to deal with them.

[Grampa]

As you well know a letting agent acts on the instruction of the landlord and we cant act (give notice) without their permission. For a agent to end their services to a landlord if the landlord wouldn't give one of these tenants notice would be commercial suicide. This particular landlord is my 2nd largest with properties well into double figures.

Maybe one answer is for a tenant to prove all their utility bills are paid without arrears at their previous property as part of the referencing process. If utility company would freely give this info if requested it could easily added to the whole checking process.

[Mortitia]

I blame the utility companies for not being more 'hands on' and coming up with a solution to the 'no cut off' scenario we have now such as enforced deduction from benefits or wages towards the bills.

I have shares in United Utilities because they pay a good dividend. They must be raking in the profits if they can let some get away with not paying for water while the rest of us cough up

[Richlist]

If the shortfall from those not paying for their water is made good by the rest of us who are paying ......the water companies are neither better or worse off.

In fact, if they can just increase the bills of everyone else to compensate, then surely they have no incentive to do anything.

* The non payers are happy.

* The water companies are happy.

* Provided shareholders continue to get their dividends they are happy.

* Lettings agents don't want to get involved....they see it as someone else's problem!

* The majority of the general publics are not aware of the situation.

* Everyone else bemoans the situation but in reality are actively doing nothing.

I suspect if we revisit this in 5 years time nothing will have changed.

[Carryon Regardless]

I would be careful about wishing for there to be changes to prevent us as tax payers paying the shortfall as the obvious answer is to make the LL responsible for the settlement, and then the gas, electric and any council tax.

I seem to recall there being such desires by the utility companies some years ago.

I am continually being stuffed by T's for non payments and repairs that can't 'realistically' be claimed for. Let's face it legislation encourages these abuses so how can we really blame T's for taking advantage (although in reality I do blame them). Seems to me the best way is to return to having the debtors prison for more than non payment of TV licence and council tax.