Hi laurenelisabeth

Firstly I do really sympathise with you here but not sure if what i write will be of some help.....

Clearly you both lived in the flat and were responsible for joint energy usage and more importantly payment of the fuel you had both been using. Especially with the birth of a new child especially gas usage increases due to ensuring the property is kept warm for the newborn.

EDF may seem harse in their actions however they are simply ensuring payment of the fuel they have provided, as you mentioned, your partner was abusing their trust by providing false meter readings for both accounts, but one of these accounts were in joint names, making you both responsible.

All that said, however, I would contact EDF and ask for their complaints proceedure and honestly I wouldnt get irate or angry at the first person you speak too as rest assured they place detailed notes on your accounts and really wont want to help any person like that, I would simply ask to speak to a manager and ask if there was any way possible the original accounts could be both be placed in joint names and billed and closed up to the date your partner moved out (October 2007 ?). This would then half the debt you are faced with as I think legally if joint names were on one bill then its fair right that it should have been on both bills. I would then ask them to only charge you for your usage in your own name from October 2007. I would ask them to move over the half the electricity & gas debt which leaves the other half to be footed by your ex partner, offer to give them a forwarding address to help with debt recovery, and realistically give it to them, either his real address if known, or last known address or even his parents, as no company would possibly agree to this if they havent got a secure address they can at least begin trace follow up on.

When your balances are transferred ask them to do an assessment on your energy usage, both gas and electricity from October to current date. This gives you an idea of your true energy usage and what you should be paying for your ongoing usage, then ask them for payment arrangement on the debt bfwd, see if you can get this over 2 or 3 years or possibly ask them to install a PrePayment meter to help you budget your usage thus ensuring you dont accrue more debt because you cant meet your ongoing usage aswell as your debt.

Hope this helps and let us know how you get on

My ex partner moved out of our 2-bed flat, which I now live in alone with our 18-month-old daughter, last October (2007). Our electric bill was in my name (after starting off in joint names, I had to change it as he hid these bills along with his gas bills and called EDF up giving false meter readings for both accounts). Our gas bill was in his name. While he lived here, my ex never paid the extremely low gas bill, leaving it at about £20 for approx. 8 months. Since leaving, EDF have transferred the bill AND the debt (more than £600 combined) to my name, leaving me with huge bills that I just cannot cover. Can they do this? The gas bill was in his name alone and I therefore see it as his responsibility. I accept responsibility for the electric bill, of course. I have no idea how to tackle this issue, or what my rights are or what the law says about this. I am currently paying £50 a month to cover my gas and electric bills but sadly they are still increasing and I am getting further and further into debt with them. Please, any advice would be appreciated.