Owner must pay power due of tenant if latter vacates property

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Ombudsman on Tuesday ordered a building owner to settle electricity dues of Rs 6,63,949, even though the tenant had already vacated the premises. The appeal petition was filed by P Kannan, a resident of Kolathur in Chennai, who argued that he should not be made to pay for the consumption done by his former tenant, Bharathi Paper Products. Kannan claimed that the tenant had been paying bills as per Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) assessments, and any shortfall was due to negligence on the part of the officials. He further requested that either the tenant company or the responsible TNEB staff should be held accountable for the dues. The forum agreed with TNEBs assertion that power consumption between September 2020 and May 2021 was wrongly entered, and from July 2021 to March 2022 was short-assessed, when the tenant was occupying the property. Consequently, TNEB had revised the bill and issued a demand notice of `6,63,949 on December 13, 2023 to the owner of the property. The tenant had vacated by then. The petitioner had already approached Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) in Chennai (West), on March 18, 2025. The CGRF, in its order on April 26, 2025, also directed the petitioner to clear the dues. Subsequently, Kannan appealed against this order with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Ombudsman, which ruled that the building owner is liable to pay the arrears. However, it also said that action may be initiated against the TNEB assessing staff concerned for the faulty assessment.