Utilities Connected under My Name without Consent

Lmeltc on 06/12/2017 - 14:18
Last edited 06/12/2017 - 14:31 by 1 other user

Hi everyone, just after some advice for an issue that my partner and I are experiencing with our investment property.

We own an investment property that is managed by a property manager. Our new tenants moved in in May 2017.

Someone (either the tenant or the property manager) has signed up for gas and electricity for that property using my partner's phone number and email address using connection services on realestate.com.au. Apparently all you need is the property address, name, phone number and email address and no ID verification is required. I would think it would be the property manager as I don't think the tenants would know our phone number and email address.

Because they were signed up under my partner's name, he has been receiving the bills for these utilities. We forwarded them on to our property manager so that she could get the tenants change it to their details and to pay, but after going back and forth for months nothing seems to be done and we are getting debt collection messages through phone messages and emails and this will probably affect our credit history badly.

What we have done so far:

• Contacted our property manager numerous times to sort the issue out with the tenant - she keeps saying she will sort it out and get on to it but obviously hasn't as we are still receiving reminders to pay the bills (latest reminder was this morning)
• Contacted the utilities company to say we are just the landlords and have not lived in the property before and that it has been incorrectly signed up under our name - they cannot verify who actually signed up because the account was established online via an external move in form, gave us a third party reference number which means nothing to us, says will advise/threaten the residents of the property that gas and electricty will be disconnected if payment is not made (however this is useless as the tenants have actually disconnected from their services and moved on to a new company, these are old bills they have not paid)

Is there anything else that we can do? This has been going on for months and I really wanted to get it sorted (and change property managers after that). Can we take some form of legal action?

The gas bill is approx $600 and electricity bill is approx $500.

Normally it would be in my nature to just pay them off to avoid further trouble, but I think 1k is a huge sum to pay for someone else's mistake.

It is quite a messy situation and I have tried to explain as best as I can but if anything needs clarification please let me know. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

• 

  dcep on 06/12/2017 - 14:24

  +1

  don't bother

  just go straight through FOS

  https://www.fos.org.au/

  • 

    Baysew on 06/12/2017 - 14:29

    +3

    That would be a complete waste of time. FOS = Financial Ombudsman Service.

    The authority to contact is Energy & Water Ombudsman

    • 

      meltc on 06/12/2017 - 14:56

      +1

      Thanks, am getting on to them now.

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  myusername on 06/12/2017 - 14:42

  so the utilities are connected under your partners name?

  have your partner call up and have them disconnected

  • 

    meltc on 06/12/2017 - 14:56

    The tenants have already disconnected from this company and moved on to another. The outstanding bills are charges for what they used before disconnecting.

    • 

      myusername on 06/12/2017 - 15:26

      maybe invoice the real estate?

      • 

        meltc on 06/12/2017 - 18:26

        That's what we've been trying to do as it is most probably their mistake, but all they have said is "we will sort it out" about 5 times now and no one has.

      • 

        myusername on 07/12/2017 - 09:21

        @meltc:
        are you in QLD?

        then make contact with the RTA

    • 

      Olokun on 06/12/2017 - 17:53

      So what did the tenants say wen you asked them to pay the bills?

      • 

        meltc on 06/12/2017 - 18:27

        We haven't spoken to the tenants directly, only through the property manager who said she will forward the bills on to them and sort it out to them.

        If I'm not mistaken we aren't allowed to contact tenants directly, is that right?

• 

  airzone on 06/12/2017 - 15:03

  Can I have your name, phone and email address? I feel some energy cost savings coming my way!

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  djkelly69 on 06/12/2017 - 15:08

  +2

  It is up to the energy company to prove there is a binding contract between them and your partner. They have already advised they can't confirm the identity of the person that signed up to the 'contract', so I would suggest they are on pretty shaky ground.

  Having the name/email/phone number of your partner might suggest it was him who entered the contract prima facie, but this assumption can be rebutted (for example, IP address, makes no sense for your partner to sign up, etc).

  Advise them in writing that your partner did not sign up for the contract, you believe there was fraud committed, and you won't be paying them a cent. Might also request that no further debt recovery action, etc, be taken that might negatively affect your partner's credit rating (although there is ways to have erroneous marks removed from your credit file).

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 06/12/2017 - 15:39

    +1

    Do all this AND lodge a fraud report with the police assistance line. You need to show the Energy Company you are serious. I had a similar issue with my ex landlord who signed me up for a new account without my knowledge. Energy Australia were pretty good about it - although there were special circumstances, like the fact I had no idea what circuits were on my new account, and neither did the very dodgy landlord. If you lived elsewhere, show the energy company this to help your case. Make sure they mark the account as in dispute, so that the debt collectors stop.

    • 

      meltc on 06/12/2017 - 18:30

      Thanks, seems like I will have to resort to doing this.

      My partner even received a sign up notice to his email address, however the content in the email was addressed to the tenant and even had the tenant's phone number on it.

      I just have no idea why it is so hard for the company to understand that someone has mistakenly signed up using my partner's email address instead.

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  trustnoone on 06/12/2017 - 17:48

  on realestate.com.au. Apparently, all you need is the property address, name, phone number and email address and no ID verification is required.

  Maybe not helpful but pretty sure you do need some form of ID, my agent put my name through them and used my driver's license number (I was there when he did it), they then called my mobile to confirm (don't remember if they reasked for my ID though). I only say this because (unless I'm wrong which I could be or they changed things), its likely someone gave your information to someone somewhere (guessing maybe property manager?). Just wanted to say that if true, thats something I'd be a bit worried about.

  • 

    meltc on 06/12/2017 - 18:32

    This is why we are worried as our information has been misused by someone else. It has to be the property manager as I don't think the tenants would be able to get all this info.

    All we got was a sign up email from realestate.com.au saying thank you for signing up. Came to my partner's email address but was addressed to the tenant and had the tenant's phone number on it.

    It's all very messy and we don't exactly know who gave who what information in between.

    I would think ID verification would be required seeing as you can use utility bills as a form of ID. But when I called the company and asked them to look into their records to see what ID they received during the sign up, they said there weren't any because it was a third party online request. ???