Moving into house with prepay (key) electricity meter

Clarita

Hi

I did a search but couldn't find any info on this in the forum.

We have just exchanged on a house which we'll be moving into in 2 weeks time. The electricity is on a prepayment key meter. We have only ever had normal meters in our homes before so don't really know how a key meter works.

My main concern is that we move in on completion day to find that we have no electricity working because the vendor has either left the meter with no credit or taken the key with them.

The obvious answer is to ask the solicitor to ask the vendor to confirm details re. the meter but to be honest given how long they have taken to respond to everything else, I wouldn't be surprised if we never actually received any answers from them on this (they just take forever and then only give fairly vague answers to things).

When I look online for info on meters you seem to need to know who the supplier is (which we do not) so,

A) Does anyone know how I would find out who the supplier is without actually having access to the meter to provide the serial no. etc?

Does anyone know how we should go about topping up the credit in the meter on that first day if needed and what we do if there is no key left to top up with?

Any help is very greatly appreciated.

We will be wanting to change the meter to a normal one but prob won't actually start this process until we've got a little more settled in.

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

There may be some credit left on the meters. That will be shown on the first screen which will also show any standing charge debit which can tot up at around £2 a week per meter, I ve seen hundreds of pounds debt on standing charges on some vacant houses. This advice wont be needed if you are going to a nice area but prepayment meters are routinely fiddled and will show a lot of standing charge debts .You wont be responsible for that standing charge owed until completion date. Google,,who supplies my gas /electric but I think you may need meter serial numbers, or MPAN and MPRN
As a start why dont you try phoning British Gas as the largest supplier in the UK followed by SSE in the South East to rule out those two.
Ideally you need a new key for electric and a card for the gas which you can then add credit at paypoint shops once the supplier has registered the key/card to your account . Once this key/card is in your name and inserted into the meter it should wipe any debts from the meter both standing charge debt and debt added from former credit meters.BG will do online top ups and a few others will once they send you their dongle gizmo.
Once you get up and running on prepays you will need credit checks to remove the meters.
To double check if there is any debts on the meter you can check screens S and T on the electric meter and screens 26/27 on the gas..Key and card need to be inserted to see this info

Clarita

Hi Sacsquacco


Thank you very much for such a helpful reply!


Yes I think then I'll try calling some of the big suppliers to see if I can find out who supplies the electricity. Then hopefully they'll let me order a new key ahead of time so that it'll be at the house waiting for us when we get the keys and we can get going in case there is not credit already on the meter.


Will be interesting to see if there are debts on the meter as we're not really sure why there is a prepay meter in the first place as the family who live there are owner/occupiers and seem fairly comfortably off so seems unlikely that they'd not be able to pay their electric bill... Who knows!


Thanks again

[Deleted User]

Once you find your supplier its quicker just to get a reference number from them to use with a blank card which you can pick up at a PayPoint shop rather than wait for the postman.
If Its BG supplied they do a pretty tough credit check using Experian before switching meters .EDF are known to be more forgiving. Both suppliers are known to do the removals for free unlike Scottish Power who customers have told me that they charge over £200 per meter.
Those two debt screens I mentioned one is the debt weekly repay which can be as much as £16 per week whilst the other is total debt remaining.Debts on screen A , the first screen is purely to do with weekly standing charge which will build up for vacant properties or when the meter is nt being credited.Check the metal seal at the bottom of the electric meter where the cables enter is present..Also check the gas meter that the words "call help " are not displayed on the first couple of screens on pressing the red button. That is a strong sign of what we call a busted valve inside the meter and the meter has been bypassed to act like a credit meter..Unlikely but just in case.!
Oh, and none of this advice will work if the last supplier was OVO or Utilita because they use the Liberty Secure smart prepayment meters..So if that is the model of meter in the house one of them is the supplier.

Clarita

I can't thank you enough, this is so useful to know! You are a mine of information!


Thank you so much