When I started the thread some two years ago, I was very shaken by the events and very angry. The matter was resolved by paying the £640. You have to treat British Gas and Revenue Protection as two separate organisations (though they are not). This is because once RP goes in British Gas cannot do much. In retrospect, I have to say that the £640 is not unreasonable. You have very little choice; no other supplier will consider you and if they did they will almost certainly charge much more to bring in a contractor. The big surprise was that they actually installed a normal meter (not pay-as-you-go). But that was not all. I have another flat in the same building with the same dodgy meter problem from previous occupiers. With that other flat, the whole meter change was done by appointment. However British Gas made a gesture of only charging electricity from the day the new meter was installed. So in the end I had a very long free period, much to the benefit of the tenant who was also an innocent party. The Revenue Protection normally have intimidating tactics; they just descend on you and want the £640 there and then or else they take away the dodgy meter and leave you with nothing. However, as I dealt directly with the Revenue Protection guy who was visiting, through his mobile phone, things went smoothly. In fact he was very helpful when it turned out that the engineer (from Siemens) needed access to the adjoining shops to temporarily disconnect their supply also so that the work could be carried out. I did not feel the need to seek recovery form the people I bought the flats from. They probably did not know about it. In the end it cost a lot of time and £640 for each flat. From the business point of view, there was no break in the tenancy and rental income and therefore no real financial loss. I have to say that the lady from British Gas Escalation team who was assigned my case was superb. According to the regulations, responsibility lies with the owner of the property. In my case both Revenue Protection and British Gas said at the outset that they believed I was innocent but unfortunately responsible for the meter change costs.

Hi, it is a sad story and it very much reflects today's harsh world. You will never get any sympathy from those type of people. Even if one of them felt sorry for you, they would not be able to do anything - "computer says no ! " If you are still in the same predicament, my own advice to you is to look at alternative lenders. The criteria for secured loans is less stringent that personal loans. Furthermore , not all lenders use Experian. Some use Equifax. There are many reputable mortgage brokers about who are willing to source finance for you free of charge (they get their commission from the lenders). If your income is reasonable and you do not have too many debts, it should be worth contacting them. I do not believe that those small missed payments would worry underwriters. D

All the credit accounts were live accounts, i.e. my credit cards , personal loans, etc. Now , they no longer appear on the list of accounts. It is almost certainly a mistake. As you say, they could be showing again if a different address was used when searching. I have a subscription with that credit ref agency . Therefore when I log in , I log into the account with them. The big question is : if a company searches my records, what will they get ? I suspect they might see all these missing accounts. The only way to find out is to pay £2.00 to experien and give them only my current address and name and see what I get. I will do this and see what happens. The Agency is one of the big three (Experin, Call Credit, Equifax). I cannot divulge which one, for obvious reason.

I will keep you all posted. Meanwhile looks like time to apply for a loan.

Strange thing happened this week. I obtained a credit report from one of the main CRAs and lo and behold all but 3 of my credit accounts have vanished from the system. The ones which are left are small accounts. So according to them I have a total debt of £120 . No more credit cards a/c , no more hp a/cs, no personal loans showing anymore. Yet I can still download a report from last year which has all of them. Is this the Bermuda Triangle of the CRAs ? Or could this be a conspiracy to boost the economy. I am not complaining but I will not be celebrating until these accounts remain outside the report for the next 6 months. I think this is a glitch in the system. My address is correct and my electoral roll entry accurate too. Dan

Getting a meter fitted by someone else may not be simple. You could enquire and see what they say. There could even be a cost which is higher than the £640. In my case I had no choice. Either I pay the £640 or leave the tenant with no electricity for an indefinite period. I think the priority is to get the electricity back into the property. I know you must be feeling absolutely gutted now, but you must look at things in a clear and lucid way. This episode should not result in you holding a property that is not rentable. It took me many weeks to recover from that experience. My anger towards B Gas would not go away. I considered legal proceedings (even an injunction to stop them doing the same thing to the other property). However, legal action tend to be very expensive and risky. I did stress to British Gas (and also to their RP dept) all along that I paid under duress. All my letters were marked "without prejudice". Therefore I can always get back to them when I have enough amunition. At lease both my properties are rented at the moment. You should keep a dialogue with them just in case it turns out that only they can reconnect the electricity. Dan

Sorry to hear this happened to you. The £640 that they charged me included the cost of installing a pay-as-you-go meter. Basically they descended on my tenant and asked for the £640 or else they would disconnect and walk away. As I paid the £640 by debit card , they installed the pay-as-you-go meter to replace the existing meter (so-called tempered with) The whole thing is totally unacceptable but it is difficult to get justice. I think that in your case you are right to contact the police. There have been a lot of very nasty cases documented on this forum and it is a mystery that the authorities have not descended on British Gas themselves. For your information , there is a Revenue Protection dept within British Gas. Unfortunately they are a law unto themselves and don't even answer to their own bosses (British Gas). ATD made some useful comments on my original thread. They categorically refused to refund my fee of £640. Instead they said that I could keep B Gas as a supplier or else go somewhere else. They said that they were entitled to be paid for the work on the meter. I still have a issue with them regarding another property in the building. That property is being supplied with electricity but as yet B Gas , who have accepted to supply the electricity 1 year ago, still cannot charge for the electricity because the meter is not recognised. I have pleaded with them to install a pay-as-you-go meter but still nothing has happened. No doubt I will get a surprise visit as in the case of the other flat. Perhaps the only way to fight them is by joint action. I simply do not have the stamina for this on my own. As regards the way they gained access to the property, you should contact the Revenue protection and ask them to tell you They can only do it with a warant (although I believe they can do it in your absence). If they did not have a warrant then it is definitely illegal. The RP seem to work in the same way as bailiffs. The deliberately fail to comminicate in the hope that thay can then go in by surprise and use heavy tactics - and get more money. Dan

Not too sure at the moment as to what kind of interference they are alleging. It has something to do with what he called 'landlord's meter' having been installed. Also , B Gas customer services mentioned something about meters being installed without notifying anyone. Anyway I will soon find out. As you say, the RP are quite heavy-handed. The guy however did say to me that they would not prosecute me nor my tenant.To make sure that this does not happen , I have already send two letters this morning by recorded delivery ; one to the RP (using the official contact address for B Gas) and the other to the Registered Office of Centrica plc - chairman's office. The letter explain the whole story about the property and when we bought it, etc. I still intend to do everything to recover the £640. I have asked my tenant to keep the paperwork that he passed to her but I have not seen it yet. Thanks Dan

Thanks for your reply. I had a call today from the person handling my complaint. She suggested that I write to the Revenue Protection Unit to get a breakdown of the £640 charges and see if they will consider a reduction. My reaction was to tell her that I will only write to British Gas plc's address-for-service and not waste my time with the Revenue Protection unit. Reading your comments , I realise that not writing to the Revenue Protection Unit will leave no trace of the history of what happened and, as you said, could leave me open to prosecution. So I will go ahead and write to them. I will also send a copy to their headquarters (Chairmans Office). My Solicitors will also be looking into this. Thanks for your advice Dan

Hi This is my first post and I am still recovering from the shock of yesterday. Please can someone help us. Here are the salient points:- a)We bought a property in November 2007 for letting b)Contacted B Gas and gave electricity and Gas reading in November 2007 c)B Gas cannot trace existing electricity suppliers and does nothing about the electricity d)3 months later and hours of telephone calls. Still B Gas cannot trace current supplier e)We let the flat to a young couple in February 2008. For six months she tries to get them to set up an electricity account without success. They claim that there is no meter point ref. f)They come to have a look and still cannot establish who is the supplier. g)Ten months later they are still dealing with it and they advise my tenant that they have passed it to their investigation dept. h)Yesterday I get a phone call from a british gas representative. He was at the premises with my tenant and said that he was disconnecting the supply. He also stated that he believed there had been a theft of electricity and that I cannot stop him disconecting the meter. He further stated that if I hand over £640 he will put a prepayment meter in place or else we will have no electricity. He had no warrant. i)I had no choice . I asked my tenant to hand him a cheque which I then refunded her by bank transfer the same day. If I was living there myself I would have ordered him out as he had no warrant. The welfare of my tenant however was paramount. j)I was also told by the representative that somebody had tampered with the supply of electricity- obviously before we bought the property. My question is why did they use such heavy-handed tactics when , after all, we had been in a dialogue with them for 10 months to open an account . I am thinking of suing them but not too sure on what grounds. I would appreciate anyone's help Thanks Dan