The Labour party is reported to be considering legislation which would require landlords to pass on information about tenants who do not pay their bills to utility firms in a bid to tackle bad debt.
The magazine Uitlity Week claims that if Labour wins the general election it may place a duty on landlords in England to provide water companies with details of their own address along with a tenant's name, date of birth and the date they started occupancy.
According to CCWater bad debt costs to water companies stand at approximately £1,635 million per year in outstanding and unpaid bills.
A Labour told the magazine: These reforms will focus on finding new ways to support those who cannot pay their water bills and pursuing those who can pay but choose not to - this means tackling bad debt' or non-payment', which adds around £15 on to everyone's water bill.
Similar legislation is currently being introduced in Wales, obliging landlords to pass on tenant information to the water companies. If landlords fail to provide this information they would become jointly liable for payment of water charges at the tenanted property.
Northumbrian Water is reported to be working with Water UK - which represents all of the UK's major statutory water and wastewater service suppliers - to launch an online portal where landlords can enter tenants' details.
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Comments
MC S - I agree entirely with your point about a Police state.
I have another view on this though. Ex-tenants' debts are a drain on our resources. E-mails and phone calls from water companies requesting information about previous Tenants etc.
We are highly computerised and already our system automatically e-mails the water company with details of all new Tenants moving in on a monthly basis. If we have to make a simple change to that report to include forwarding addresses of ex-tenants (if this becomes law) then we would actually see it as a positive in reducing enquiries from the water companies.
Obviously Labour must have nicked this idea from another party because so far their ideas on reforming the PRS have been borderline moronic. :D
Does nobody else see that this country is well on the way to becoming a Police State - allbeit softly softly
Most of our bad debts relate to benefits tenants....why not pay utility bills direct Don't see Labour being so concerned that Landlords do not get their rent....but that does not affect their pocket!!
So Labour is not going to be the tenant's friend as well as not being the Landlords