Electricity not working in flat?

[acknowledged74]

Hi

We have just bought a flat which has a key meter by its front door.

There appears to be credit of £4 on it and the switches on the electrical box inside the door are all to 'on', but no power is in the property.

There was a tenant that literally moved out last week, and as far as I'm aware the electricity was working fine until then.

Am I missing something, I've never has a metered electricity, so is there another on off switch or something else I need to do?

Please help.

 

[plugwash]

It's quite possible there may be more switches somewhere else.

Can you provide pictures of the electrical stuff you can see?
Are you aware of any central electricity distribution cabinet for the block?

 

[Spark123]

Is it your flat or are you renting it?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Providing you have power to the board.
Check at the consumer unit/fuse box and see if the isolator is in the on position, also check the MCB (if applicable) are on, and/or fuses (if applicable are in place).
Also check for RCCB/RCD they could well be off.

 

[westie101]

Or is it that the meter is £4 in debit (debt) so will need more than that put on it to switch it on?
Is there a - on the display?

One of the first things you must do is to have the account transferred to your name(s) to avoid paying any debt from the previous user

 

[flameport]

There appears to be credit of £4 on it

Are you sure it's a credit of £4 and not a deficit of the same amount? Not unlikely that the tenant didn't buy any electricity knowing they were moving out and instead just used the 'emergency' button which will put the meter into a negative amount.

If you buy £10 on the key and put the key in the meter, what happens then?