Last year I rented an apartment. I had the electricity put into my name. Because of a mixture of stupidity and inexperience I never had the electricity turned off. I was under the impression that my roommate had taken care of it, but apparently not.

So about a week ago I got a bill at my new address from the electric company. It said that I owe $392. Obviously the new tenant has been receiving free electricity for the past 6 months. The apartment complex said they couldn't do anything about it, as did the electric company. Is there any legal action I can take against the new tenant or should I just chalk it up as a learning experience and somehow pay the bill?

Please Help!

If you don't want a negative mark on your credit report, pay the bill. Then turn around and take the ex roommates to small claims court to try to collect. Find out why all of a sudden the billing address changed - did your postal forwarding order never kick in (if you had one), or did the roommates somehow cause the bill to start coming to you?

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

I agree with aardvarc. You told the electric company that you did not live there as of a certain date? You can try to learn more by searching for information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center here: http://www.lawinfo.com/index.cfm/fus...lient.consumer, or search for your particular topic here: http://resources.lawinfo.com/index.html.

Good luck.