Reconnecting utilities in a reposession?

Jez

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Anyone here bought a repo before?

Bizarrely no-one i know seems to have any experience with repo's. I am due to complete later this month on a house which appears to have a gas meter and electricity meter installed, and has obviously been lived in before. The water supply is unmetered.

As it stands the house is obviously switched off, and on viewing i was not allowed to test anything as it was off by order of the mortgage company who owned it. The water system is completely drained down and the boiler is obviously completely off.

What are my chances of just flicking it all back on via the main taps/switches and it working? Has anyone here got experience in what state the utilities are likely to be in?
 
Speak to Transco to find out who supply the gas, not sure who does the leccy. Local waterboard will be fairly easy to contact. Getting a new meter in can be difficult, depends on whether or not the company are prepared to pay and if they've take the meter out that is unusual in my experience.

Oh, check the loft out. I've dealt with repos where they've gone and done bad things in the loft, peeing and worse...:(

Hope that's helpful, did you get a good deal?
 
My flat was a reposession when my parents bought it. I'm fairly sure that we had electricity at least on the day we got the keys, so that was possibly dealt with by the solicitors. The water had been disconnected because of a leak flooding downstairs while the flat was empty, and I think we had to get plumbers to sort that out.
 
Kitchster_uk said:
Speak to Transco to find out who supply the gas, not sure who does the leccy. Local waterboard will be fairly easy to contact. Getting a new meter in can be difficult, depends on whether or not the company are prepared to pay and if they've take the meter out that is unusual in my experience.

Oh, check the loft out. I've dealt with repos where they've gone and done bad things in the loft, peeing and worse...:(

Hope that's helpful, did you get a good deal?
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I have had all of the details regarding water rates through from my solicitor, i am going to keep it unmetered at the rate its at, it seems very cheap. Whether or not it will be turned off inside the house, or in the street, i dont know!

Gas & Electric; both the meters are there and all pipework looks great, i dont see that any physical work is going to be needed - so i dont know what to make of them.

House condition and loft condition seems fine, it needs work but the previous owners dont seem to have trashed it at all :p
 
Vixen said:
My flat was a reposession when my parents bought it. I'm fairly sure that we had electricity at least on the day we got the keys, so that was possibly dealt with by the solicitors. The water had been disconnected because of a leak flooding downstairs while the flat was empty, and I think we had to get plumbers to sort that out.
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Re the water, ignoring the internal leak which is obviously my responsibility, did the actual supply work?
 
Jez said:
Re the water, ignoring the internal leak which is obviously my responsibility, did the actual supply work?
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I think it was just turned off at the stop ****, but we needed a qualified plumber because of the way it was turned off.
 
Jez said:
But they wernt from the water board? :)
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I don't think so. We had a lot of blue stickers that said only certain people could turn the water back on stuck to anything that used water. We had to do a lot before the place was habitable though, so I'm not really sure what happened when.
 
Vixen said:
I don't think so. We had a lot of blue stickers that said only certain people could turn the water back on stuck to anything that used water. We had to do a lot before the place was habitable though, so I'm not really sure what happened when.
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Could you go into any more detail with "quite a lot"? :) I only have 10 days of overlap with my current house!
 
Jez said:
Could you go into any more detail with "quite a lot"? :) I only have 10 days of overlap with my current house!
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Ah, the place was in a really bad state. We had to put in a new kitchen and strip the walls in every room, all new carpets and doors, stuff that we knew about before we put in an offer.
 
Vixen said:
Ah, the place was in a really bad state. We had to put in a new kitchen and strip the walls in every room, all new carpets and doors, stuff that we knew about before we put in an offer.
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Ah right, all standard stuff :) Cheers
 
Ive bought a couple, just ring the utility companies and they start a fresh account for you and turn it on. Simple really, never had any hassle.

Bailiff letters that come for the previous owner are best :)
 
Spit said:
Ive bought a couple, just ring the utility companies and they start a fresh account for you and turn it on. Simple really, never had any hassle.

Bailiff letters that come for the previous owner are best :)
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How long do they generally take to do so mate? As i say, i only have a 10 day overlap with my current house and would like some utilities by the time i have to actually sleep there if possible :D
 
mrk1@1 said:
It can take up to 8 weeks for reconnections to be made if things are properly shut off.
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What? No chance. You can have everything reconnected within 2-3 weeks if you talk to the correct people and take the right channels. Reconnection = money for supply companies.
 
do BT still charge you some ridiculous amount to connect you if the previous owner was Disconnected.

I remember one of my mates had to pay £100 or something connection charge because the previous tenants had been cut off for not paying. And there was no way around it other than not getting a BT line.
 
next day for me, i tell them i just moved in and have no gas or leccy. soon gets them moving into gear.
 
£125 if the line has been physically disconnected for whatever reason. Its free if the line is still connected, but switched off. Pot luck, and whats £125 in the scheme of buying a house anyway. I dont care about the costs, i just care about how long it takes :)
 
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