Buying a flat with the electricity disconnected

optibearus

Hi all,

We have just had an offer accepted on a BTL flat. When we viewed the electricity had been disconnected.

We stated our offer was contingent on the electricity being re-connected and working.

We are at the point where the broker wants us to pay an arrangement fee ( agencies in house broker ). The agent went in today and confirmed that it is not just a case of turning the fuses back on. The property is disconnected. I have told the agency I want the power turned back on before we progress any further.

The agent seemed a bit taken a back by this. In my eyes it is a perfectly reasonable request for a couple of reasons:

1. We're spending X thousands on a flat. Seems reasonable the electricity should be working.
2. We don't want to be on the hook for re-connection costs. My suspicion is a tenant didn't pay their bill.
3. If the valuer goes in the evening, he won't be able to see anything.

As I said, the agent seemed a little bit surprised at my insistence around this. So I want to know? Am I being reasonable? How is this usually handled?

Thanks!

Guest101

Have you spoken to providers to see if they will charge you for this?


You can of course write into the contract that the solicitors will hold an amount from the sale, let's say £300 in case you have to pay to reconnect?

glentoran99

isn't the electric switched off on most properties between tenants? and its just a matter of getting in turned back on?

Guest101

glentoran99 wrote: »

isn't the electric switched off on most properties between tenants? and its just a matter of getting in turned back on?

Often no.


The standing charge is often accepted by the LL as it's fairly minimal

G_M

Is this a repo?

Or has the property been empty for a while eg during a Probate period?

It is standard practice, to comply with insurance, for water to be drained down and utilities disconnected.

In these circumstances, the buyer buys blind - usually at a discount because of the risk.

optibearus

No it's not a repo as far as I know.

I think it's been empty a few months.

In that case is there anything we can do to mitigate that risk?

MFWannabe

I would try to find out if there would be any cost to have the utilities reconnected.
If you go ahead with the purchase then make your solicitor aware of this problem and that the utilities must be reconnected prior to exchange of contracts

HouseBuyer77

I believe you can conduct aspects of the EICR check without external power (in particular part of it involves measuring the resistance of the conductors used in the circuits, this won't need external power) so an electrician could probably do some level of checking to give you confidence all would work when the power comes back on.

G_M

Is the water on?

Is there gas in the property and is it on?

Personally I doubt you'll persuade the seller to invalidate his insurance (if that's the reason) and sign new utilities contracts. He/they chose to sell with the property disconnected & is unlikely to change his mind.

Make your offer accordingly, or withdraw.

optibearus

I just talked to our solicitor. Much to my surprise they said that the only way to resolve it is to turn it back on, they also said any agreement to do it pre-exchange wouldn't be legally binding anyway. This is again, the agencies in-house solicitors.

Quite prepared to walk if it comes to that but this really doesn't seem like it should be this difficult.

PasturesNew

In my view, there's little risk here. As an ex-rental its electrics will have to have been "safe" and it's just been empty a few months. It's normal to turn the electricity off in an unoccupied building. I'd expect it to just need turning on again the day you got the keys.

I'd expect there to be no problems/issues .... unless there's some good reason why, from what you've seen of the place, you think there could be a problem. e.g. a really shabby place, with sockets hanging off the walls.