Taylor Kincy shares a Fullerton home with several roommates. The utilities used to be in one roommate’s name, and she paid her share of the bills directly to him. When he moved out two years ago, Kincy had the utilities transferred to her name. But recently, SoCal Edison told the single mother that she still had outstanding bills that her roommate, the former account holder, never paid.
“I can’t believe they put $6,000 on my bill when it was in someone else’s name.”
That’s right, SoCal Edison demanded $6,000 from Kincy. She didn’t have enough money to pay the money back, and she didn’t think she would have to; she had proof that she had paid her former roommate the money.
But the I-Team learned that the California Public Utilities Commission allows SoCal Edison and other investor-owned electric utilities to collect money from anyone who benefited from the service, even if the account was not in their name. So because Kincy lived on the property, SoCal Edison could collect money from her.
“They just dump it on anyone they want money from. And they don’t care that I’m a single mother or have a very low income,” Kincy said.
SoCal Edison told the I-Team it always tries to collect the money from the account holder first. But we still had questions about Kincy’s case. Why did they let Kincy pay the bills and not the other 12 roommates? Kincy also had proof that she would pay her former roommate’s bills, so why didn’t Edison take that into account?
We asked these questions before our interview with SoCal Edison earlier this summer, but the company didn’t have many answers.
“I can’t tell you exactly, every situation is different,” said SoCal Edison spokesman David Eisenhauer.
The company remained unchanged on Kincy’s $6,000 bill.
“That’s an insane amount, especially for someone else’s debt,” she said.
But after our report aired, SoCal Edison called Kincy and told her the debt would be paid off.
We wanted to give SoCal Edison a chance to explain why, but an hour before an on-camera interview, they canceled and instead issued a statement that said, in part, “We worked closely with the customer before, during and after the previous NBC story. We are pleased the issue has been resolved.”
The I-Team asked SoCal Edison if it had changed its policies regarding collecting funds from anyone other than the account holder or if Kincy’s case was a one-time exception. The company did not respond to that specific question.
Kincy is just relieved that this is finally behind her.
“I can use the money to support my son, have fun with him in the summer, just bond with him and spend time with him. Instead of paying the electric bill of 12 people,” she said.
If you share bills with roommates, SoCal Edison recommends that you request a copy of the bill each month to verify the amount due and payment of the previous month’s balance.
