Taylor Kincy shares a Fullerton home with roommates. Finances are tight for the single mom, so every penny counts. And she said a recent bill from SoCal Edison could ruin her financially.
“I’ve been very stressed out about it,” she said.
Kincy moved into the home five years ago. The utilities were in a roommate’s name. She said she paid her portion of the bills directly to him. The roommate moved out two years ago, and Kincy switched the utilities to her name.
All was fine until recently when SoCal Edison told her she owed past bills that her roommate, the previous account holder, never paid.
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“I can’t believe they’d put $6,000 on my bill when it was under someone else’s name,” she said.
But the I-Team learned that SoCal Edison is allowed to do this, thanks to the Public Utilities Commission.
It allows SoCal Edison and other investor-owned electric utilities to collect from anyone who “benefited from the service,” even if the account wasn’t in their name. Since Kincy lived at the property, SoCal Edison could collect from her.
“That’s a crazy amount, especially for someone else’s debt,” she said.
SoCal Edison told the I-Team that it always tries to collect from the account holder first.
“We will exhaust all our opportunities to collect from the people who are listed on the account,” said spokesperson David Eisenhauer.
But after that, SoCal Edison can pursue anyone who lived at the property for an unpaid bill.
The I-Team had more questions for SoCal Edison about Kincy’s case: Why are they pinning this bill just on Kincy and not the other roommates? She said there were 12 of them. Why did the company let an unpaid bill grow so big? Would they release Kincy of the bill if she provided proof that she paid the roommate directly for her share? And why didn’t SoCal Edison tell Kincy about the outstanding balance when she transferred the account to her name, which she believes made her any easy target to collect from?
But the company’s answers didn’t tell us much. Eisenhauer said he couldn’t speak to the specifics of Kincy’s case, and he was unaware of some of the circumstances of Kincy’s case.
SoCal Edison also said it could disconnect Kincy’s service if she doesn’t pay the bill.
The company said if people are struggling with their bill, they may qualify for an income-based program or payment plan. It said it’s working with Kincy.
Kincy said that doesn’t help her, and she feels unfairly targeted.
“They just want the money -- whatever way they can get it. They don’t care about the situation,” she said.
She’s now on the hook for someone else’s $6,000 bill.
“They’ll just put in on whoever they want to get money from. And they don’t care that I’m a single mother or I have very little income,” she said.
Kincy said she’s filed a complaint against SoCal Edison with the Public Utilities Commission, specifically for not pursuing payment from any of the other roommates.
SoCal Edison has assistance programs to help people who are struggling with their bill.
