First Time Buyer - Utilities

Frances109

We are in the process of buying our first house and we have no idea about the utilities.

The house we are buying is a repossession so everything has been completely cut off. Now I know it is on an electric meter, then there is the water and the gas.

Could anyone give me a sort of dummy's guide in how to find out who everything is with and how to get it all switched over.

With the council tax I assume I just have to contact them once we have completed?

Westminster

It's an interesting question and not that uncommon I suspect.

I will suggest that a suitable guide is put together.

You could also try posting in the Energy thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13

Frances109

Thanks Westminster - I will try there!

I thought Martin would already have done a guide so I was quite surprised when I couldn't find one.

davidmcn

Frances109 wrote: »

The house we are buying is a repossession so everything has been completely cut off.

Are you sure they've been "completely cut off"? They're usually just switched off (and plumbing drained) i.e. you just need to turn everything on yourself (assuming the systems are safe to use).

Fosterdog

When we bought our house last year we just phoned British Gas, pretended we'd been told they were the supplier and they checked the database and had a record of who our suppliers actually were for gas and electric. Then it was just a quick call to each of them where they both set up temporary accounts just so we could get up and running with everything turned on before we switched to our chosen provider.

They were both on pre-pay and we had a new gas card in the post within 48 hours and were given a code to pick up a new electric key from the local shop on the day we phoned them.

We were lucky in that we weren't moving in straight away as we wanted to do work on it so had six weeks, it would have been very inconvenient if we had to move in with no utilities

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks for the PM Westminster.

Hi Frances109.

Our Buying Repossessions and Moving Home Checklist should help. The Buying Repossessions guide has a small section on buying a house where the utilities have been cut off but there might be more info that could go in there. I'll pass the feedback on.

Thank you!