Electric meter removal from shop

[zedstar]

Asking for a friend, I’ll keep it short.

They took a shop on and it turns out that the previous tenant owed a huge amount of unpaid electricity. The supplier would not change the name on the account until the my friend provided the, with some papers, the most important of which seems to be a rates bill. Friend is rather lazy and didn’t bother sorting that out. He then got a phone call telling him that his meter was going to be removed and then today they came and took it.

He sent them his lease etc today but they point blank refuse to do anything about it until they get the rates bill, which has now been applied for and will take approx 2 weeks.

Any advice for the lazy git?

Many thanks in advance....

[Mr Overheads]

Yes agree a contract with the incumbent supplier asap, they might backdate up to 3 months if he's lucky. Otherwise they'll massively overcharge on out of contract rates from the date the lease says he took occupancy. Also when they removed the meter they should have left a card with the closing meter read. Make sure he keeps that and checks to the bill when finally received. Landlord should also have taken a closing read when the old tenant left, but many don't. Landlord is liable for any void period (unless outgoing/ingoing leases say otherwise).

It takes a lot of notices and involves the courts to remove a meter, he must really be ignoring his post. What else has he missed!