Electrabel and Electric Bills

This information is provided simply to help other expats avoid a similar problem.
On April 20, 2013, I rented an apartment to a young man. He assured me that he would pay the rent promptly each month. He appeared to have a steady job and provided me with his business card and the brochure of a company of which he said he was the co-owner.
Together we took the meter readings and completed and signed the form for switching over the electric meter account to the tenant. He said that he would send in the completed form .
In October I discovered that the account was still in my name as I received a bill from Electrabel for electrical service. The bill was dated October 8, 2013. On October 11 I sent the bill to the tenant and requested that he pay the bill and that he send Electrabel the form changing the meter over to his name.
In November, 2013, I received a reminder from Electrabel that the bill had not yet been paid. A penalty for late payment had been added to the bill. I sent the reminder notice to the tenant and once more requested that he pay the bill and change the meter over to his name.
On November 17 I received another reminder that the bill had not yet been paid. I again forwarded this reminder on to the tenant.
The problem of late or non-payment of bills or rent went on for several months. Sometimes he was late with the rent and sometimes the rent was not paid. The reminders from Electrabel continued. I continued to send them to the tenant for payment.
In May he was already more than 1200 euros behind in either rent or monthly charges. At this point the amount overdue was still within the two months bank guarantee he had established when he took the apartment. I did not want to let the situation get to the point where if he moved out the guarantee would not cover the rent and charges owing. On May 23 I met with him and agreed that he could leave the apartment at the end of July, 2014. Breaking the lease after one year would normally require that the tenant pay a penalty of two month’s rent. I agreed to let him break the lease without penalty as I was more interested in getting a tenant into the apartment who could pay his bills and rent promptly.
Near the end of July we met and he did pay all of the rent and all of the charges owing. We made an appointment to go through the apartment together to close off the “etat de lieu”. He did not show up for the appointment. Fortunately there were only some relatively minor damages. Happy that I had received all of the rent due, I decided to sacrifice any claim for these costs. It must be said that all through the previous year we had been on good terms. This continued until our final meeting at which he paid the overdue rent and charges.
The electric bill however was still unpaid. I gave him two more bills and/or reminders in June he said he would pay them both.
In the months prior to and after the date on which he left the apartment I had several conversations with representatives at Electrabel . I was concerned that I would have to pay the electric bill but was assured on at least four occasions that this was not the case. On July 8, for example, I was told that they would use a company which specializes in debt collection to collect it from the tenant. On July 28 I spoke to Electrabel once more to give them the meter reading on the day the tenant moved out. They confirmed once more that I would not be responsible for the bill as the tenant had signed a lease. (The lease was registered). I also gave them the new address the tenant was moving to. On one of these occasions I asked for person’s name at Electrabel who had told me I would not be responsible for the bill. This person identified himself as Mr. Frank Belmans
I had also asked in a previous conversation with a representative at Electrabel why the service was not cut off. The person replied that they never do that as lots of people are late in paying their bills. I pointed out that I was the person on the contract and could make this request to cut off the service. This did not seem to matter. But she did confirm once more that I would not be responsible for the bill. (She did not advise me that Electrabel could not shut off the meter. Only Sibelga can do this. See note below)
On September 9, 2014, a representative of Electrabel called me and advised me that I would be responsible for paying the electric bill. I advised her of the several conversations I had already had with Electrabel and that I had been advised on several occasions that I would not be responsible for the bills. I also suggested that she listen to the taped conversations on which I had been told this. On the same day I wrote Electrabel asking for a copy of the transcripts of the conversations I had had with Electrabel on May 26, May 28, July 8, and August 27. In particular I requested the transcript of the conversation with Mr. Frank Belmans. I received a reply to this letter on September 26 advising me that they cannot provide copies of such records.
On November 17, 2014, I received a letter from the “Huisser de Justice” advising me that if I did not pay the bill they would proceed to collect the money via the courts. At this point I consulted a lawyer who advised me to pay the bill myself to avoid further charges. He also wrote to the tenant at his new address in an attempt to collect the money. The letters were sent registered mail but were returned as “not accepted”. The lawyer also advised me that it would be a costly process to try to collect the money and that it would probably cost more than the amount of the bill. By this time the bill, with late payment penalties, amounted to just over 400 euros. By this time it had become more a matter of principle than of money and I was tempted to ask the lawyer to proceed to the courts with the matter. So far I have resisted this.
Much more recently (while writing this) history I decided once more to contact Electrabel. In the ensuing conversation I discovered something new. I mentioned that I had previously requested that Electrabel shut off the meter but I was told in this most recent conversation that Electrabel cannot do this. The meter is owned by another company, Sibelga. To have the meter turned off I should have contacted Sibelga. It is unfortunate that in all of the previous conversations with Electrabel no one mentioned this. Otherwise I could have had the electricity turned off. I was also told that when a meter is changed from one name to another that both parties are responsible for sending in the request for change. Having had several tenants in the past this was entirely new to me. Previously only one of us has sent in the papers requesting a change in the account.
I realize that part of the problem is my own fault. I trusted the tenant to send in the form to change the account to his name. This trust was misplaced. I also should have informed myself on how to go about closing off the meter. Finally, I should have done everything with Electrabel in writing. What lessons have I learned that might help other expats?
1. If you are a landlord do not trust the tenant to send in the papers to transfer the account to any utility company. Ask for a copy of his/her ID card and send the completed papers in yourself.
2. If you are in this kind of situation do everything in writing.
3. Electrabel is not a company I can trust and I will never use their services again. They clearly misinformed me on several occasions and later on declined to take any responsibility for this misinformation.