Do you know if she could be sub-letting the apartment? If so, the person that she is sub-letting it from will probably still be receiving the bill, and depending on that person's situation, for instance if she had been really in a hurry to get someone to sublet, and/or had had bad experiences with subletting to people who didn't pay their rent, she might be just picking up the electric bill to be nice - or - it could just have been off her radar, for whatever reason, and she could send your friend a bill for the whole ten months any day!
If the apartment is an expensive one, in a high-rent area, it might be that the previous tenants are still being billed, and - I know this will sound crazy to many people - just haven't noticed it.
If they are very wealthy, and pay a lot of bills, that could happen, but just like the generous sub-letlord or lady, they could also notice it any day and either have the service shut off, or they could be courteous enough to give your friend the opportunity to pay them back and have the service switched over to her name.
Another - though less likely possibility is that the previous tenant was obtaining service through a workaround, but the problem with those is the same of the absent-minded rich person - sooner or later, the workaround stops working, service is cut off, and if she tries to get it turned back on, and if the workaround stopped working as the result of discovery, they might want her to pay for the length of the workaround, not just the ten months!
It's a long shot, but I guess your best chances would be if one of you knows somebody you can trust who works at the electric company, you could have them check and see what their records are showing about that apartment, and maybe that person could also advise her on the best way, if any, to get her name on the record without having to pay the entire ten months at once, unless she has that much cash or room on a credit card with which to pay it.
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LOL!!!!!
