Do I Need to Pay Vendor's Energy Bills?

Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:32
Last edited 21/11/2023 - 17:19 by 1 other user

I just recently bought a property in NSW and settled it smoothly.

On Monday I got two energy bills from AGL in my letterbox (one for electricity, another is gas). it says Dear Energy Consumer (then my home address………).

I passed on to my solicitor and she has spoken to the vendor, vendor says he always putting the property for lease and did not stay there for a single night, so refused to clear the debts.

So I am bit confused now, Do I really need to pay these two leftover bills or I should simply ignore it? (If I am not gonna clear the bill, am I going to wear any consequence of it?)

Any suggestion would be much appreciated!

Home & Garden Electricity Energy Supply Gas Supply

Comments

  • iforgotmysocks on 21/11/2023 - 12:34
    +5

    Are they addressed to you?

    If not, not your problem.

    • Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:35

      no, it adress to the property energy consumer

      • bobbified on 21/11/2023 - 12:38
        +10

        Show the electricity supplier the papers that you only took ownership of the property from a particular date and they can choose to chase whoever else. (I would even provide them with the details of the previous owner).

        • hasher22 on 21/11/2023 - 12:44
          +2

          Don't even bother contacting the supplier on the bill, they will go away automatically. It's a waste of time, the supplier would see there is an active connection and will stop sending bills.

          This is quite a common practice when homes are up for sale or in transition to another owner, there will be bills sent to the property addressed to the "property energy consumer" because during that time energy is used assuming potential buyers are testing out the home and seeing the home.

          • Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:47

            @hasher22: It makes senseto me now.
            But would this affect on my credit report down the track? (I think probably not)

            • hasher22 on 21/11/2023 - 12:49
              +5

              @Mick1234: No consequences to your credit report, cause the bill is not under your name.

            • HarryBolt68 on 21/11/2023 - 12:50

              @Mick1234: Didn't you earlier confirm that it's not even addressed to you?

              • Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:53

                @HarryBolt68: These two bills not address to me, but the property is under my name (legally) now. That is where my concern came from…..

  • hasher22 on 21/11/2023 - 12:36
    +1

    No

    You pay from the day you set up your connection with X supplier activated your electricity and gas since the account it's under your name.

    If the previous bills are under the previous tenants or owners or even no name just says something like "dear resident" or as you said "property energy consumer", you have no legal obligation to pay it and they can't chase you.

    • Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:43

      Thank you @hasher22
      There is the thing that the property was settled on the 30/10, the billing period is up to 08/11. I have sign up with X supplier on 02/11. In this case, Do I still need to pay between 30/10 till 08/11 (pro rata) or just ignore the entire bill?

      • hasher22 on 21/11/2023 - 12:47
        +3

        Ignore the bill, they have no legal grounds to get money from you since the bill is not under your name. They can't even raise a debt collector cause there's no person to chase the debt from.

        I assume the 8/11 is the disconnection date from that supplier and they found out there is an active supplier to your home from the other supplier.

        In saying that, no, you don't need to pay pro-rata from 2-8 Nov.

        • Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:49

          Well explained. Many thanks @ hasher22

          • hasher22 on 21/11/2023 - 12:59
            +1

            @Mick1234: No probs

            The source of my information is that I used to work for billing and customer service in a call center in an energy company for a few months before I quit lol, and this was a common call that the new owners or tenants got a bill from our company and they were concerned or irate they got a bill when they moved in.

            When we see the bill and it's either in the previous owners name or to no one such as "dear resident", we just tell them to ignore it cause legally we can't chase them up for money and if it's under "dear resident" we would wipe that bill to $0 under "no occupant" reason.

            Also this is true to other bills such as a phone bill, I used to work for Optus customer care and someone put the wrong address on their account (this happens quite frequently), got their bill and they decided to call us to call the account holder to fix the mistake. A few customers are concerned their credit report will be affected, but 100% assured them and guaranteed them their credit report will not be affected because the bill is not under their name.

            So in other words, you're ok not to pay.

  • Nugs on 21/11/2023 - 12:37
    +1

    I'd imagine it is for the vendor to chase up with their tenants
    .

    • Mick1234 on 21/11/2023 - 12:38

      I doubt vendor would even chase the tenant

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 21/11/2023 - 12:46
    +1

    Let your retailer deal with it. Not your problem. They will obtain the billing rights for your meter. In the very unlikely event they cannot obtain them, they'll let you know what to do.

  • garetz on 21/11/2023 - 15:30
    +1

    You are only responsible from the date of possession.

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