Newly bought house: A couple of Pre-pay meter questions.

mad_dr

Hello! I wonder if someone can help answer a few questions:

We've just bought a new house (well, very old house, but new to us!) and it seems to have a prepay electric meter (Talexus ACE9000 KBD thing) which we would like to remove. Our credit rating should be fine: I believe this has an impact on the chances of removal.

The house was repossessed about 10 months ago and the electricity isn't on (I presume the fusebox is all switched off) but I believe that electricity is still supplied to the house as the meter is illuminated and has a figure of £259.04 showing in the window. We are having a fair bit of electrical work done before we move in but I had a few questions to ask:

My questions are:

1. How can we find out who the meter is OWNED by?
3. Can we use the credit that seems to be being displayed?
2. If so, how can we find out who is supplying electricity to the house/meter?
4. Does anyone know if Southern Electric will remove the meter free of charge if we choose to use them for our electricity supply?

The Gas meter also seems to be prepay - there are two units, one of which is a British Gas unit with a credit card type thing in the front of it. The gas meter looks very old and battered - is it possible for us to get this replaced at the same time?

Many thanks in advance for any assistance!

Andy

spiro

1. How can we find out who the meter is OWNED by? - Doesn't matter

3. Can we use the credit that seems to be being displayed? - Yes if there is credit but these meters have a display you can step through using a button so you may not be seeing the credit.

2. If so, how can we find out who is supplying electricity to the house/meter? - If you contact me with your postcode and house number I can look on the central industry register.

4. Does anyone know if Southern Electric will remove the meter free of charge if we choose to use them for our electricity supply? - Don't know

The Gas meter also seems to be prepay - there are two units, one of which is a British Gas unit with a credit card type thing in the front of it. The gas meter looks very old and battered - is it possible for us to get this replaced at the same time? - Again ignore the sticker, your supplier will do this but may charge.

Hope this helps.

hotcookie101

When I moved into my house a few years ago, there was a prepay gas meter but norml electric.
I asked BG (suppliers) to change it,and they did FOC providing I passed the credit check. If I had failed I would have been kept on the prepay and had to pay a £200 deposit. I passed and didnt have to pay anything to have the meter changed

mad_dr

Thanks for the replies!

The postcode is GL6 6UT.

It sounds like the best best would be to just ignore the figure on the meter and call Southern Electric and ask them to remove them for us.

Andy

Pssst

When you ssy youve got two units (gas meter) do you mean that you have two meters? Either way,just contact the supplier and they will credit check you for an exchange to a quarterly meter.

SwanJon

mad_dr wrote: »

1. How can we find out who the meter is OWNED by?

As above

mad_dr wrote: »

3. Can we use the credit that seems to be being displayed?

If you havn't found out already, Id bet that there is an E after the number, and it means you need to buy this much credit to get the electricity on - your supplier will be able to reset this so you don't need to actually do it.

mad_dr wrote: »

2. If so, how can we find out who is supplying electricity to the house/meter?

As above

mad_dr wrote: »

4. Does anyone know if Southern Electric will remove the meter free of charge if we choose to use them for our electricity supply?

If you have been with a supplier before at another address and paid your bills OK, they'll usually swap it for free.

spiro

mad_dr wrote: »

Thanks for the replies!

The postcode is GL6 6UT.

It sounds like the best best would be to just ignore the figure on the meter and call Southern Electric and ask them to remove them for us.

Andy

Andy, to check on the central industry register I also need the house name/number as there are about 30 properites for the postcode, all in Painswick.