Well, good news! Son says letting agent have finally paid the bill, so fingers crossed they actually have, and the warrant is not applied for! Phew, that was a worrying few days, and have to thank people for all your help and suggestions Thankfully I did not need to pull the 'I know who the landlord is' trump card, but have it in reserve if anything else happens. Seems that the threat of a warrant, and then a multitude of calls and messages from the tenants did the trick and british gas got the money owed to them. (I imagine some of the £2000 was fines and charges added by the debt collection agency) So resolved, thanks again everyone x x

Wow, I might do that, I did have a bit of a look on there last night, the options I found were much more expensive than that, around £15, maybe that was including more info than I would be needing. If I was the landlord and paying the agent a hefty fee for managing the property, I don;t think I would be too happy about their mismanagement of this. Update on British Gas.. they inform me that the only thing that will stop the impending warrant to enter and pay as you go/cut off is for us to put pressure on the lettings agent to pay, in full, immediately. The person I spoke to was very reassuring, as much as they could be about the impact on the tenants, it was inevitable that it would happen, if payment was not made very quickly. Tenants have contacted letting agent again today to ask when it will be paid. .no comment from the agent. Ericsbrother, spurred on by your post I had another look on the land registry, took some doing but finally found where I could get the info I needed, all for £3. Well worth it, as I have found out their names, and that they actually own a business on campus too! Obviously I will not approach them directly at this point, glad I do have some details, you never know, a bit of name dropping to the letting agent might just be the extra leverage needed to get them to pay this bill.

He can ask, I suspect the lettings agent will be reluctant to give him details of the landlord in the circumstances, especially if it is the agent who has not paid the bill, you are right, the landlord should know what is happening. I believe as they are students, the property will be exempt from council tax? the Lettings agent is legitimate, one of the biggest in the area, has an office based in the city, this is the office he has contacted about the bill and letter today.

Yes that is my post, there wasnt many replies, I googled 'warrant of entry' and it lead me to this site, which seems really geared up towards consumer rights, thought I would post here too, hope thats ok? Thanks unclebulgaria, he has no idea who the landlord is, the lettings agreement just has the letting agency details on it, they manage all aspects of the rental.

My son has just moved into student digs, his contract is inclusive of utilities (although the small print says it is actually up to a limited allowance of £10 per tenant per week) When he moved in (just over a week ago) there was an outstanding bill from British Gas, for approximately £160 with additional admin costs due to non payment. He handed it to the Lettings agent, who said they would sort it out immediately. Today he arrives home to a hand delivered letter from a debt collecting agency with a demand for over £2000 outstanding! They are going to seek a warrant to enter the property and attach a prepayment 'pay as you go' to the gas meter, or if that is not possible to do, they are going to cut the gas off! 1) The letting agreement states that utilities are 'inclusive' of the rent they pay. We also assume the tariff set on the pay as you go meter will be huge in order to help pay off the outstanding debt, as well as pay for ongoing gas use, so the students should'nt be having to put their own money in this should they? 3) How long does it usually take for debt collecting agencies to get a warrant? 4) As tenants, where do they stand if the debt collectors come back with a warrant? Obviously he contacted the lettings agent immediately and told them, they said they would 'look into it and get it sorted' (again). Now I can't see an outstanding debt getting to £2000 without the lettings agent knowing about it at some point, so this can't be news to them. The letter and bill were addressed to the lettings agent, not to the Landlord. I am not sure quite how it works, but I'm making the assumption that the lettings agent totally manages the property, so is it more likely that they have not paid the bills, rather than the landlord?