Energy disconnected

rainbowcloud121

Hello all I am looking for advice please. I am have taken on a commercial premises but the electric has been disconnected due to the previous tenant not paying their bills. I have contacted them and sent them my lease agreement but they are not accepting it and wanting to speak to the landlord. The landlord will not speak to them as they spend half their time out of the country and said they are not responsible nor want to get involved. What can I do now as I am stuck with no electric through no fault of my own!

Kind regards

onlyfoolsandparking

Don't pay the Landlord, they'll soon change their mind about getting involved! 

Ectophile

onlyfoolsandparking said:

Don't pay the Landlord, they'll soon change their mind about getting involved! 

I'm not sure an eviction notice would really help the OP.

Is it even the landlord's responsibility anyway?

Cardew

Ectophile said:

I'm not sure an eviction notice would really help the OP.

Is it even the landlord's responsibility anyway?

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True, but it won't help the landlord when subsequent tenants can't get connected and need eviction!

DawnCrush

rainbowcloud121 said:

Hello all I am looking for advice please. I am have taken on a commercial premises but the electric has been disconnected due to the previous tenant not paying their bills. I have contacted them and sent them my lease agreement but they are not accepting it and wanting to speak to the landlord. The landlord will not speak to them as they spend half their time out of the country and said they are not responsible nor want to get involved. What can I do now as I am stuck with no electric through no fault of my own!

Kind regards

It is not uncommon where commercial premesis are concerned for electricity to be disconnected when a previous tenant moves out. You will need to enter a new contract of your own to get the supply reconnected.

It's nothing to do with the landlord (unless you have a rather peculiar commecial premesis lease that confirms that the landlord is responsible to the supplier for all electricity charges you may accrue)

Edit: Forgot to welcome you to MSE .
Welcome to MSE.

Robin9

You are not tied to the previous tenant's supplier.  Ring around the big suppliers **  and get their terms and go into contract with them. Things do move fast and if are quoted terms this morning you will have paperwork to complete and return this afternoon. I hope you are aware Commercial Suppliers are quite different to Domestic - there is less protection as a business person you are expected to know what you are doing

Contact the suppliers themselves - don't use brokers.

 ** Other suppliers - Gazprom and Total Gas and Power.

DawnCrush

Robin9 said:

You are not tied to the previous tenant's supplier.  Ring around the big suppliers **  and get their terms and go into contract with them. Things do move fast and if are quoted terms this morning you will have paperwork to complete and return this afternoon. I hope you are aware Commercial Suppliers are quite different to Domestic - there is less protection as a business person you are expected to know what you are doing

Contact the suppliers themselves - don't use brokers.

 ** Other suppliers - Gazprom and Total Gas and Power.

As you rightly say, commercial electricity supply is very different to domestic.

Not only is the process different when tenants move in and out of premesis as I indicated above, but alos in many cases, commercial users can negotiate their own bespoke tariff with a supplier as opposed to domestic users who have to take a tariff the supplier currently offers.

In certain circumstances, an energy broker can negotiate a better commercial tariff than you could negotiate yourself. This maybe because the boker simply has more experience in doing this and so can get you a better tariff, or because some brokers have better "relationships" with some suppliers, as they put a lot of business their way, so can leverage this to get you a better price.

It's not unique; insurance bokers often have a similar relationship with insurers.

So I do not agree to avoid brokers, but by all means check with a supplier yourself if you have the time to contact them all. A broker will, by their experience, know which supplier(s) to approach to get you the best deal.

Mister_G

I manage our electricity supply for our local village hall (micro business).  I found that by going through a broker I could secure a better rate on a four year fix that going directly to suppliers.  Ironically, both were with British Gas!

rainbowcloud121

We called British gas and edf and both would not help until it has been disconnected and the supplier has withdrawn site. Meaning no electric for about 2 months!

Robin9

I am confused  - in post 1 you said the electric had been disconnected. 

rainbowcloud121

Sorry I wrote this in behalf of a friend. English is not their first language. It looks like they are threatening disconnection due to previous tenant not paying. But they won't change the supply over until the landlord confirm the new tenants even though the lease has been provided