Buying a Repossession - Utility Services

johnson293

Apologies if this has been covered in another thread, but we are close to exchanging (hopefully) in the sale of our house and purchase of a repo property early next week, with a potential completion/moving date of next Friday.

I am a bit unsure about the existing utilities at the new house, and just wanted some advice - how to find out who some of the suppliers are, how I find out if the service is just off at the meter or been disconnected altogether, and what we do when we move in, in terms of billing.

I have contacted my current gas/elec supplier (Scottish Power) and advised them of my potential moving date, and that I wanted them to supply the new house. They checked and said the current supplier was N-Power. They have started the order process for changing the supply over, and advised me to take readings and advise of forwarding address, etc on the moving day, but their take over of the service will not go live until mid-August. They said that when we move into the new house, we should take meter readings and just start using the gas and electric - the billing will be sorted as/when they take over the service. Is this right, or do I need to contact N-Power separately and advise that I am moving in and intend changing supplier?

Does that fact that an existing supplier is identified at that address suggest that the supply is just switched off at the meter(s), rather than a full disconnection?

I will contact the local water company and advise them for billing, but I think the new house may have a water meter, which we dont have at the current house.

Also, is there a way to find out who the current phone supplier is? We have Sky TV/Phone and BB, and that requires a telephone line of some sort, so I probably need to know there's one there before I ring Sky. I know BB will take slightly longer to switch over, but that's not a problem. The main thing was to get the main utilities sorted.

Cheers for any advice offered - were hoping the utilities can be sorted in the potentially short time scale between exchange and completion next week.

MJ

Nosht

I moved house recently & for free 'phone connection I used the Post Office, B.T. wanted an astronomical sum just for reconnection of an existing line.

Regards,

N.

hethmar

BT have had a free connection offer on recently - check if its still running.

johnson293

Well, we exchanged today, and are moving in on Monday.

We went to the house earlier this week to measure up, and while there we had a look around and couldn't see any obvious sign of malicious damage to pipework, etc.

The Gas and Electric meters both have 'do not use' tape on them, but both appear to simply be switched off. The labels also said the water system had been drained down. I contacted Northumbrian Water this morning to advise of the moving date, and they said the water will just need turning back on at the stopcock at the meter which is external - something we can do (i.e dont need NW to do it).

For safety I might get a proper gas central heating engineer/maintenance person out to recommission the boiler and heating system, and give it a safety check over (flue's, etc).

The telephone line had a 'stop' put on it, and Sky have started the process of taking over the line (from BT) so I can retain my line rental with them for the remainder of my current in term (3 months left). There is no charge for Sky taking over the line. I will need to contact them again to sort the Broadband out once it has ceased on the current line (10 days) but thats not too important.

There is already a Sky dish up at the new house, so that should just be a case of reconnecting my Sky+ box at the new house.

Will post back once we're moved, if we have any issues.

MJ

GSXRCarlos

how have things gone?

johnson293

Sorry for not posting back - I had posts in quite a few threads, and wasn't sure which I'd replied back in.

Anyway, moving day itself was quite stressful due to late release of keys, delayed removal men, and eveything happening from late afternoon - but the switching back on of utilities was relatively straight forward!

I had contacted the water company to advise of moving, and was told the property had a meter located externally, and the water may need to be turned back on there. It turned out that it was simply turned off at the stopcock under the kicthen sink. So that was simple enough, and after a few spluttering taps to remove the air, the water was flowing ok, with no apparent leaks.

Gas and Electric were also just switched off at the respective meters. Once these were switched on, we did a check around for leaks/shortages, and everything looked ok.

The Combi boiler for the central heating also just needed switching back on. We checked for any obvious leaks at the flue which goes into the loft and then out the external wall, and everything seemed ok. My dad managed to get the water back into it ok, and that appears to be working fine. The heating works, and we have hot water as/when needed.

The current supplier for gas/elec is Npower, and I am bringing Scottish Power to the new property with me. I have been told the scottish power account won't be active until mid august. Nearer that time, I will be asked for meter readings at the property from when I moved in-tothat date, and the usage for that period will be payable to Npower, before my scottish power service starts.

The telephone service took a bit longer due to a fault on the line when Sky took it over - but they sent out a BT engineer, and that is now working fine. Broadband is activated at the new address on Monday, after having to wait until it deactivated on my old line.

So, it seems we have been relatively lucky with our repo, and the services were just switched off within the property, and hadn't suffered any malicious damage by the previous owners on leaving.

Having spoken to our new neighbours, it seems the previous owners knew they were heading towards financial meltdown, and had somewhat of a 'blowout' on new cars, jewellery, designer dog and the like, before simply upping and leaving suddenly. One day they were there, next day they'd gone. So seems they weren't forcibly ejected, but left before they could be.

GSXRCarlos

That's great news for you, i'm in a similar position, having just exchanged contracts yesterday, and will be getting my keys next wednesday.

That means i'll be making a lot of phone calls on thursday to sort out supplies etc.

The good news for me is that i can't / don't need to move in for a while, while i do some work on the house.