Tenants unpaid bills.......

[NDA]

Would anyone know if a landlord is responsible for unpaid water rates?

I've had a tenant leave and have had a demand for unpaid water rates - less of a demand, more of a threatening letter - to the property.

They were, under their tenancy agreement, responsible for these rates.

Thanks......

[mattdaniels]

I'm just going through the same situation at the moment. Not only a standard unpaid water bill, the cunning so and so's put the gas and electric in to my name and told the council tax they'd moved out as well, 2 months before the end of the tenancy.

I've written to them all with copies of the signed AST showing their end date and whatever forwarding information I have. Hasn't stopped the council also sending me a Regulation 3 notice requiring details of the tenants despite already giving them that information.

[james12345]

It is not your responsibility - it is the responsibility of the tenant to pay all bills, unless stated otherwise in the tenancy agreement.

We've had tenants leave, owing money to British Gas. Somehow BG got our home number, so we had about a dozen automated calls a day for three weeks before we caved in and paid, then claimed it back from BG.

[jimmyjam]

Not your responsibility. It is water companies job to chase them as long as you provide a forwarding address.
There is a bill going through parliament I think to change this for some utilities but at the moment you just need to provide a forwarding address and they must take it up from there.

[NDA]

OK - cool.

Thanks for the replies....