Updating post from Reddit.
Context: Working in accounts for a fairly new resi landlord (build to let) with a few hundred properties.
We're a couple of years in, and have started receiving letters from debt collection agencies, mostly for the vacant periods of the suites, all with incorrect dates (I guess tenants trying their luck by picking today's date when they sign up for the utility).
We don't seem to be receiving the original bill, because they presumably go straight to the flat and get binned by the tenant. Clearly trusting the tenant to sign up correctly for utilities and pass our bills back to us isn't working.
Is there a process out there which actually works for handling vacant periods? It might be as simple as registering with an energy/water company when a unit is unoccupied - I don't think the lettings team is doing this currently. Intercepting post with our business name is a possibility but I think the miss rate will be too high.
Just asking for advice really as currently I'm getting shrugs when I wave these letters at people, then have to deal with it myself - some of the debt collectors take 30 days to provide the original invoice for me to then dispute due to incorrect dates etc..
Edit:To clarify, we are taking meter reads as part of start/end inventories. I'm just not sure we're reporting them correctly.
Take a meter reading on the last day of the previous tenancy with a date stamped photo. Take a meter reading on the first day of the new tenancy with a date stamped photo Submit to the supplier?
I don't know, am I overthinking this?
Not at all. Taking meter readings should be part of every check out and check in.
Having said that, some of the utility companies (Ovo, I am looking at you) can be a nightmare to deal with.
Took me about 4 attempts to get them to give me a bill that used both the correct dates and meter readings.
Meanwhile, they kept calling me and threatening me with debt collection proceedings, to which my response each time was "when you send me a bill that is correct, I will pay it, while you keep getting it wrong, I won't".
We are taking the readings with the start/end inventories. Supposedly our tenancy software emails the supplier with these but it can't be working as we still aren't receiving vacant period invoices and they are rarely correct once we've managed to drag a copy from the debt collector.
It's fine handling it on a small scale, but we can't possibly deal with hundreds of these at a time.
The day they vacate, fill out the move in form with the correct reading, the day tenants move in, fill out the move out form with the correct reading.
Utility companies provide services to landlords and managing agents to deal with this. My old company used to use landlord tap for water and some British gas portal thing. I'm not sure what it was called - I didn't use it directly, but I had to provide meter readings for void properties to be added to the portal and it was updated again when they were relet. I'm sure others companies will provide a similar service with some competition on rates.