Electricity cut off from the main , can somebody help

WiseOwl00

Unfortunately it sounds like it is your problem to sort out. When you bought the property, you were buying it in that condition and taking on all of it's problems as your own. A seller is not obliged to actively tell you about every single issue with the house - it's up to the buyer to ask questions, go through the searches, and arrange a survey themselves. They told you the electricity was cut off, you were happy with that, and proceeded with the sale. If I was buying a house which had been empty for 3 years and needed renovating, I would have definitely arranged a survey. I honestly don't know if the surveyor would have picked up this issue though. 

It is unfair and I would be upset having to fork out for someone else's dodgy mistake. But unfortunately it is your property and nobody else has any interest in sorting the problem out as it doesn't affect them. If it's any consolation people sometimes do find an expensive issue with a house that they weren't aware of when they bought it. Surveys and searches should ideally stop this happening, but now and again it does happen. But again, it's up to whoever owns the property at the time to fix it. 

Robin9

moneysavinghero said:

You say that another supplier would connect you for free. If you don't believe what North West are telling you, then why not go with that supplier.

Are you comparing apples with apples ?    Is your "free" supplier assuming that the mains supply to the property is live, whereas North West West knows it has to dig up the footpath and connect to the mains cable and reinstate the tarmac with all the costs involved.

Davesnave

WiseOwl00 said:

 I honestly don't know if the surveyor would have picked up this issue though. 
It is unfair and I would be upset having to fork out for someone else's dodgy mistake.

No, a surveyor wouldn't do more than recommend an electrical safety and condition check, as they're not qualified to comment beyond the obvious. But it isn't someone else's 'mistake' and it isn't unfair. What would be unfair is if the rest of us had to pay for errors inexperienced people make when they enter the property market, especially at the renovation and doer-upper end of it.