has anyone encountered this issue?

my previous tenant left the premise with rm30k electricity outstanding and now TNB doesn't allow my new tenant to register a new account for the premise because of this.

they said despite the outstanding was incurred under the previous tenant's name, tnb will not supply or allow new registration because in their records, the outstanding is tied to the property.

is this how tnb has being doing things?

thanks guys for all the useful (and some useless) inputs.

some of you wondered (and even blamed me as the "lazy landlord") on how have I neglected the fact that my tenant raked up the electricity bill outstanding up to RM30k.

the tenant has been with me for almost 4 years, running the place as a mamak. all payments were made swiftly and cleared without any issues during the entire tenure save for the period beginning from November 2019 - they started to fall behind on everything.

the account for supply is registered under my name because i want to monitor their usage. there were actually several occasions that I texted my tenant to remind them to pay the outstanding because I received notifications from TNB's smart phone application that TNB is going to terminate/suspend the supply but surprisingly enough, TNB never seems to carry out the termination/suspension.

it was partly my fault for going easy on the tenant (considering the fact that they have been a good paymaster) when they told me they were facing financial predicaments but when I started to realize something was amiss, i figured that I have to be "pro-active".

i emailed TNB, called them and even went up to their outlet to inquire why there was no termination/suspension (at the time, the outstanding was around RM20k) and TNB gave me the standard reply of "will lodge an official report for you". weeks passed and still nothing happened.

i even received a call one afternoon from TNB's technician claiming that he was there but the place was closed - feeling suspicious, I had my dad went over, the place was open but no one from TNB was seen present - that's when i suspected that TNB's people actually DID went to the place and threatened to terminate/suspend the supply but was somehow persuaded not to.

the tenant officially vacated during the CMCO period and the supply was terminated/suspended almost immediately.

i brought up the entire matter with the chronology to TNB and as usual, they don't care - their reply suggests that i should take care of my own property and they conveniently ignored the fact that i expressly requested for the supply to be terminated/suspended and implied that TNB does not "work for me".

so that's that.

regardless whether the account for the supply is registered under the owner's or the tenant's name, based on TNB's current practice (whether official or not), they will not allow a new account for supply to be registered.

this effectively puts their right of action in rem rather than in personam. while you can avoid picking up unnecessary personal liabilities but it is not practical (at least from the business standpoint). what irked me is that i myself tried multiple times to get TNB to terminate/suspend the supply but yet, it fell on deaf ears.

this form of application is open to abuse and seems to favor TNB only and not their customers.

take for example, TNB could have easily allowed errant users (irrespective under tenant's or owner's name) to rake up the outstanding because at the end of the day, they know someone will pay (and that someone is the owner) so rather than terminating/suspend the supply (which will result in lower revenue), they happily allow it to continue.

this seems, illogical.

I did consider filing a suit against TNB regarding my matter and guess what, the entire legal proceeding may end up costing more than my current electricity arrears.

On top of that, by the time my matter is duly disposed off, i would have lost all prospective tenants.

I need to serve that tenant with the writ in order to initiate my civil suit but first I would have to locate him but he basically "disappeared".

The tenant did not make any payment to TNB because no payment record showed up in the TNB's smart phone application OR maybe he did pay but it definitely wasn't to TNB for payment towards the outstanding.

I did check with TNB from time to time in respect of my request to have the supply terminated/suspended and it was confirmed to me that an order to "terminate/suspend" is "in motion" but it was "in motion" for months.

With all the facts that I have, I can only assume that the supply was not terminated/suspended because the TNB technician was persuaded one way or another to "look away" and come another day and when the tenant left, there's basically no more incentives for the TNB technician to not "do his/her job".

So at the end of the day, it felt like I was punished because of someone's failure (deliberately) to carry out their duty.

Such is the sad reality when you only have one company monopolizing the supply of one of the world's greatest resources, energy.

legal proceedings would be too costly and too time consuming.

i guess that's how TNB always gets away with it.

It's a little bit more complex than that but you got the idea.

My tenant raked up the electricity bill to RM30k and then left and although the tenancy agreement showed that I was not the one using, TNB said I may be able to convince TNB of not suing me to recover that RM30k but as for any electricity to be supplied to the property, the RM30k has to be first settled, TNB don't care by who.

So, there are 2 parts to it:-

1) having the tenant registered an account for the supply effectively ONLY absolve you from any legal liabilities in terms of recovery of debt but this would put you in a position of having no control whatsoever over the account (eg: no knowledge about any outstanding owing, if any); and

2) whether the account is registered under the owner's name or the tenant's name, there will be no further supply to the property if the supply was previously terminated/suspended because of unpaid outstanding unless they are first cleared in full/partially.

... therefore my new tenant will not be able to register an account for the supply of electricity to the property.

In this arrangement, TNB will not be bothered in attempting to find the tenant and sue them (which by right they should, legally speaking) because they know eventually the owners will pay up because no owners will leave their property untenanted for years which is the reason why I lamented earlier that this "rule" that TNB relies on is abusive in nature (literally holding owners/landlords by the balls) - it is also potentially highly exploitable as well in the sense that TNB could easily let the tenant continue raking up the charges, pretend to be ignorant and then put the owners/landlords in a position where it leaves them with no choice.

To your question; do you know that you have no power/control whatsoever over an account that is not registered under your name?

Imagine this, you see from your mobile app that your tenant is piling up the electricity charges every month and your demands are not being heeded. Naturally, you would want to do something (like asking TNB to terminate/suspend supply) but sadly you cannot because you are not the owner of the account and TNB probably won't entertain you.

So, in this circumstance - you will be at the mercy of your tenant.

This post has been edited by shaniandras2787: Jul 14 2020, 09:27 PM

paid the outstanding left behind by the errant tenant from my own pocket - not worth arguing with TNB when i'm losing the opportunity to rent my property out.

moral of the story is, take care of your own property whether the account for the supplies of utilities are registered under your name or not because at the end of the day, tenants gets off scot free (especially more so with the Temporary Measures For Reducing The Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) 2020 Act.

This post has been edited by shaniandras2787: Jun 27 2022, 03:08 PM

Not wrong though, TNB "should" chase the person owing the charges BUT that doesn't mean that TNB will allow new account to be registered for the Property.

The liability to pay rests on the person registered to the account BUT that does not automatically mean that TNB will allow supply until the outstanding has been settled.

2 different matters altogether.

Not rubbish - having the tenant holding the registered account absolves the landlord/owner's the liability to pay the outstanding raked up by the tenant. This means TNB will not issue summons to the landlord/owner for the supplies used by the tenant.

If the account is registered under the landlord/owner however, there is nothing to stop TNB from going after the landlord/owner.

The benefit is that landlord/owners can sleep well at night knowing they won't be forced to pay what their tenant is using.

subjectively then yes but objectively, not so much.

as long as landlords / owners are diligent in taking care of their own property then predicament like these will not occur.

Yes, basically the onus is for one to take care of its own properties (which is fair).

You can incorporate all the clauses in the world into the tenancy agreement but the question is; can you enforce it and is it possible to enforce it?

As for terminating supplies of utilities, you need to satisfy as least 2 conditions:-

1) terminating the tenancy agreement due to tenant's default; and
2) settle the accrued outstanding first because TNB will not let you terminate if there are outstanding.

not sure whether the law has been overruled or not but you cannot terminate the supply of water (for residentials).

i guess only lazy landlords / owners loses.

if you are already in the process of a distress action then i'm sure your lawyer would have already included these contingencies into the prayer in the statement of claim - you can clarify this with your lawyer.

You should be caution though since your tenant is a company, if it's a RM2.00 paid up capital company then you will be shi- out of luck.

check the electricity bill for the property at least once a month - in that way, landlords / owners are able to spot if there are any unusual usage / accumulation of charges.

tenancy agreement usually takes up to at least 3 months worth of monthly rental as security deposits so it should be sufficient to deduct therefrom to make up for the tenant's default.

when it comes to dealing with tenants, prevention is always better than cure.