Bought Flat in London, No Gas Supply, Suppliers Hesitant to Onboard Me

Schwarzwald

Hi,

I bought a flat in a London period conversion terrace end of November and moved in immediately.

The property currently has no gas and it is freezingly cold.

 

I am being send around in circles by gas suppliers and seem to not get anywhere to simply set up a new account / get gas supplied ….

The property was vacant since 2019 due to renovation and a long sales process.

The property has an (old) pre-paid gas meter installed, apparently with nPower.

nPower was acquired by Eon in 2019.

 

I called up, emailed, and live chatted with Eon, Eon.Next, EDF and British Gas to set me up a new account.

They all claim they cannot find the property or the Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) and Eon sends me to British Gas, British Gas sends me to Eon, and so I go in circles for more than 10 days ...

 

I spoke to my upstairs neighbor, they are with British Gas.

They also told me that the previous tenants apparently failed to pay their gas bills multiple times, which might be one reason why I face challenges to find a supplier for this property (which would not make much sense to me, just look up my credit score to determine my credit-worthiness or similar).

 

Does anybody have had similar experiences and challenges to get a new gas supplier?
Any recommendations what I should do?
Any contact numbers which do not make me wait in the phone queue for 40 minutes every time I try to call British Gas?

 

I don’t understand why they are so hesitant to onboard me a new customer, I expected this to be a competitive market in which they fight over new customers, gas is a simple commodity, I dont care beyond price who supplies it to me, instead I feel as I am begging them…

 

Many thanks

 

 

 

 

Gerry1

Find My Gas Supplier

Schwarzwald

Gerry1 said:

Find My Gas Supplier

Thanks Gerry1, I should have mentioned that, the property does not show up in the list on Find My Gas Supplier .... I dont know why this is the case ....

[Deleted User]

Hi,

try THIS, might give you some info.

Robin9

Can you see a serial number on the meter ?

Schwarzwald

Robin9 said:

Can you see a serial number on the meter ?

yes, I provided them to both Eon and British Gas and they claim they cannot find it in the national database ...

I also asked the Vendor to provide me more info about the prior gas supply, but no response yet, he has not been a v helpful vendor overall, which is why the property was vacant for so long 

Gerry1

[Deleted User] said:

Hi,

try THIS, might give you some info.

Don't even think of calling that 0870 number: it costs up to 66p/minute.

Dozy Ofgem are breaking the rules by failing to state the Service Charge and to warn of the Access Charge.

seanfos

We've been having similar issues with electric supply, though at least we are connected. No supplier can find our meter by the serial number despite it being a relatively new smart meter. Half of the suppliers I contacted can't even find us by the address. I had to speak to our local network operator (Scottish Power), fill out numerous forms and wait for a site visit so they could confirm the MPAN. I am now trying to sign up with a supplier again armed with this information

Sean

Schwarzwald

seanfos said:

We've been having similar issues with electric supply, though at least we are connected. No supplier can find our meter by the serial number despite it being a relatively new smart meter. Half of the suppliers I contacted can't even find us by the address. I had to speak to our local network operator (Scottish Power), fill out numerous forms and wait for a site visit so they could confirm the MPAN. I am now trying to sign up with a supplier again armed with this information

Sean

I wouldn't mind so much if I had gas and simply like to switch, or if it were summer and I didnt need to heat the property, but currently it is hardly habitable without gas ... 

worrywart_3

No one wants new customers at the moment as they have to offer gas under wholesale price that’s the issue and why they aren’t being too helpful. 

seanfos

Schwarzwald said:

I wouldn't mind so much if I had gas and simply like to switch, or if it were summer and I didnt need to heat the property, but currently it is hardly habitable without gas ... 

It's taken us about three months to get to the point where we have the MPAN and has been enough of pain with electric connected, so I really sympathise with your situation. My only advice is to find the network operator and get straight on to their team who track down “missing” meters and try to get the MPAN

Sean