British Gas and business electricity disconnection

cobrability

Hello all,

Currently in a bit of a bind with BG (British GAS), who've obtained a warrant to disconnect the electricity from my business premises.To which i have only moved in a month ago and have not read anything about disconnection or recived anything in regards to that. They have come in on wednesday and disconnected the property, so I'm trying to deal with this pretty urgently! The situation is that we share a large old converted factory with one other small business. Each company is self contained, but there's only one electricity meter & supply. We asked to get these divided, but the suppliers wanted to charge something like £4k each. Consequently, we decided between us that my company would collect the money from the other tenant, in addition to looking after a few other maintenance tasks about the building for now that is when we get back connected to the electrics.

1st Q's: how should we get connected again can we get connected with another supplier? because i hate BG! THEY ARE B*$%(%TRDS! & THIEVES!
SHould i use Uswitch?

Anyway, some arrears had built up over the course of the past few years which have nothing to do with me but the previuos tenant owes this outstanding amount,

2nd Q's Can Electricity Supply be disconnected when the bill relates to a former Tenant?

I've negotiated and pleaded, but they're pretty implacable, I wouldn't be unduly worried about winding up my own company before i have even started it, and leaving them to chase that.

So my question to the board is how we can reasonably keep the supply on and get back connected legally without bieng harrased by BG for the outstanding amount and a cheaper supplier.


Does anyone have any ideas ??
A couple of issues worth mentioning, although I don't know if they have any bearing on the warrant:

-For the last few days, we've had suspicions about the accuracy of the meter. We've asked repeatedly for an engineer to come and verify that we're being billed correctly, but nothing's been done. The usual response is that we should get a third party electrical contractor in to do it, but of course that's a complete nonsense - how can a third party check the accuracy of BG meter?

-The meter itself is not in my premises - it's in a different part of the factory tenanted by someone else. This is where they gained access to disconnect.

-As far as I can see from the legislation (Right of Entry (Gas & Electricity) Act 1954), in order to obtain a warrant, they need to previously have requested access for the same purpose with no less than 24 hours notice. They certainly didn't do this, so it appears that the warrant was issued on the basis of false information. Any lawyers on the board - am I reading this right?

ALSO A MAIN THING WILL THEY KEEP COMING BACK TO CHECK THE DICONNECTION AND FOR THE OUTSTANDING SUM EVEN THOUGH THE PREVIUOS TENNAT IS NO LONGER AT THE ADDRESS?? CAN I GET MY SUPPLY CONNECTED BY A CERTIFIED ELECTRCIAN? AND PAY THEM TO DO IT ? AND THEN ASK FOR A SUPPLIER TO GET ME SUPPLIED?

ANOTHER BIG THING THIS IS MY FIRST BUSINESS! i WOULD REALLY APRECIATE HONESTY AND SOME ADVICE BY WHICH I CAN GET BACK AT BG ! AND STICK A POLE UP THIER A^£^SS!!!!

Any ideas? Cheers!

Premier_2

Business tariffs don't get the same protection residential tariffs get.

Have you agreed to a contract with a supplier yet? Until you do, you probably will stay disconnected ... which was probably fully justified based on their being no current contract in force. (and the supplier appears to be owed money by the previous account holder who seems to have disappeared)

I think if I were the other company that you are sharing the supply with, I'd be even more worried.
They are relying on you paying the bill. If you don't, they'll get cut off. Certainly not a business arrangement I would accept.

Who owns the property? Are both companies leasing the property? If so, and the landlord has let to two independent companies with only one supply, I would have preferred to have got the landlord to pay the bills and both tenants pay the landlord for what's owed.
Too late now though, you've presumably signed the lease.
Did you get any independent legal advise before agreeing to it?

spiro

No you cannot get anyone to reconnect the supply. If you did that at the least it would be deemed 'Illegal Abstraction' or theft which is a criminal rather than civil offence.

I agree 2 businesses should not be sharing one supply. If the LL has split it into 2 units then I would have expected him to pay. At the least I would have expected him to come to some sort of deal about getting the supply split i.e. tenants pay but they get reduced rent for x months.

Do you have gas and if so is that a single meter.

If you started using elec before you signed a contract then you are automatically on a deemed contract (duration unknown) which will almost certainly be the suppliers most expensive tariff with no discounts.