Commercial Electricity meter removed. Process to reinstall meter.

andrew1522

Hello.

I tried searching the forums but couldn't find a related postings so I'm hoping someone may be able to offer some advice.

Our tenant got into financial difficulties and built up a debt with his electricity company, a small operator I had never heard of until now.

When he didn't pay they removed the meter. I don't know if a court warrant was granted.

Now the same provider says they won't put back a meter for us (in our name) and stated that they are not interested in any further discussion.

I have talked with larger companies but they are also reluctant to help, even though this debt is not ours. They also are unable to offer advice.

I need power restored urgently to provide security for the premises and also electricity for potential new tenants in the near future. Can anyone help or advise on what steps to take to achieve this?

Thanking you in advance for your time in reading this and for any guidance or advice you may be able offer.

Benight

andrew1522 wrote: »

Hello.

I tried searching the forums but couldn't find a related postings so I'm hoping someone may be able to offer some advice.

Our tenant got into financial difficulties and built up a debt with his electricity company, a small operator I had never heard of until now.

When he didn't pay they removed the meter. I don't know if a court warrant was granted.

Now the same provider says they won't put back a meter for us (in our name) and stated that they are not interested in any further discussion.

I have talked with larger companies but they are also reluctant to help, even though this debt is not ours. They also are unable to offer advice.

I need power restored urgently to provide security for the premises and also electricity for potential new tenants in the near future. Can anyone help or advise on what steps to take to achieve this?

Thanking you in advance for your time in reading this and for any guidance or advice you may be able offer.

I don't think anyone here will be able to advise you why a supplier is not willing to supply you and relieve you of your hard earned cash.

If you don't know the reason for this, you need to discuss it directlky with the supplier.

I know you indicate the supplier is not prepared to discuss this with you .
Again no one here can say why they are not prepared to discuss supplying you. Do you really not know why?

If the supplier remains unhelpful, the best advice I could give would be to approach another supplier.
If another supplier takes the same approach, and you are still stumped, I suggest you get copies of your credut files to see if there is anything there that is putting everyone off supplying you.

baldelectrician

andrew1522 wrote: »

Hello.

I tried searching the forums but couldn't find a related postings so I'm hoping someone may be able to offer some advice.

Our tenant got into financial difficulties and built up a debt with his electricity company, a small operator I had never heard of until now.

When he didn't pay they removed the meter. I don't know if a court warrant was granted.

Now the same provider says they won't put back a meter for us (in our name) and stated that they are not interested in any further discussion.

I have talked with larger companies but they are also reluctant to help, even though this debt is not ours. They also are unable to offer advice.

I need power restored urgently to provide security for the premises and also electricity for potential new tenants in the near future. Can anyone help or advise on what steps to take to achieve this?

Thanking you in advance for your time in reading this and for any guidance or advice you may be able offer.

Get something to record the calls

Call them and follow the complaints procedure.

Let them know you will hold them liable as you cannot set your alarm or have any working security lights or heating

You could call the MPAN number below
https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/help-and-advice/need-help/whats-my-mpan-or-supply-number.html

You need to find if they are still registered as the supplier, of they are it's up to them

There is nothing stopping you moving supplier to your local one who has people in the area.

Robin9

You say "commercial". Are we talking of a shop, office, factory etc rather than domestic ?

andrew1522

Hi, thank you for your message. Perhaps I wasn't clear but this is nothing to do with my credit rating. The contract for supply was with our tenant who effectively went bankrupt. The electricity supplier had completely removed the meter and were being unhelpful and uncooperative in trying to resolve the issue.

andrew1522

Thank you baldelectrician. You're spot on re security/insurance and your comments were most helpful. Despite the supplier advising they had given up the Mpan, it appears they had not. This has all been very confusing due to the amount of misinformation we have received.

I called the original supplier again and spoke to someone else who appears to be much more cooperative. Will provide an update when I can.

andrew1522

Hi Robin9. Yes, commercial as in a business electricity supply.

andrew1522

Thank you all for your replies. Although I'm not yet home and dry, I am more hopeful. Some interesting points came out of this that I thought I'd share.

I understand that a meter may legally be removed by the current provider if certain legal steps are followed. That said usually the fuse is removed from the meter, which is more simpler and quicker to replace. This process is called de-energisation.

Once a meter is removed there is no legal requirement for that provider to reinstate the meter or provide electricity.

When a meter is de-energised there is a huge unwillingness by other electricity providers to become involved and that includes many if not all of the big 6. I don't know if smart meters are ever removed.

The original supplier involved has very small assets recorded at companies house and therefore recovery of full costs of legals/potential damage caused by lack of security from removal of the electricity supply, may be unlikely. To reduce this risk while the ongoing matter is unresolved, I employed an electrician to help reinstate part of the security on the premises.

Beware taking over commercial premises with a de-energized meter can be a major headache!

I expect there are different legal requirements for residential properties.

[Deleted User]

I have been involved with something similar in the past as a long standing meter reader.
Possibly you have not received the full details of why the meter was removed..Removing a meter completely is very rare, both with domestic and business meters.
I have only know of three domestic electric meters removed in 20 years and a couple of business meters in the same time..
If it was just a simple debt , even a large one , then that is unknown to me for any supplier to remove the meter.
In my few cases, the meter removals were all to do with debt plus persistent meter bypassing , with warnings issued and ignored.
With domestic debt and bypassing the normal method is to replace credit meters with prepayment meters with a debt repay amount set to between £3.50 to £16 weekly depending on how much the debt is.
Business meters in my experience do not use prepayment meters so they would be forced into meter removals if the debtor refuses to repay or agree to a repayment weekly amount.
I would expect that the supplier will only install the meter if there is a full repayment or a debt repayment amount , even if the original debtor has left the premises
Small business electricity tampering is surprisingly common, especially in Takeaway outlets