Hooking up for utility services in a rental -- what to expect?

I am looking at a rented flat that does not include any bills paid, so I will be paying for my own gas, electric, phoneline, water rates etc if I take this place.

My experience in the US was that when a new customer starts up with the local utilities provider, they often have to pay an upfront deposit if they are not already a customer of the system.

Is there a similar system here? The letting agent said they will notify the relevent companies of a new tenant, and then I'll just move in and get my first bills in due course, but is there anything else that has to happen because I am a brand new entity in the UK as far as paying an electric bill etc?
Does it vary in policy from place to place, utility company to company?

Just wondering how much extra money I am going to need besides deposits for the flat.

Thanks for any advice.

I don't know if it's any different in London, but he we just called the utilities we needed (ie. British Gas or nPower, Yorkshire Water, Virgin, etc.) when we moved in and gave them meter readings.  We didn't have to do deposits on any of them, but a few required direct debit to be set up.  If you don't have a British bank account already, you'll most likely have to have one for utilities.  (Wherein you'll run into the wonderful catch-22 that is getting a British bank account.)

Just make sure that when you move in that you take the meter readings so that you don't get stuck with paying for energy used by previous tenants.

But other than phone lines you won't have to pay a deposit.

And if you are told to pay for a deposit or reconnection on a BT line, check it thoroughly.

Vicky

No deposits needed IME.  Like Vicky said, you may get asked to do a BT reconnect fee, which you shouldn't have to do if the flat had a phone to begin with.  When I have been charged these, I have negotiated with the landlord to pay it, as it is really a flat issue not a tenant issue.

Thanks everyone!

This will likely be outside of London but it sounds like it's the same all over, so that's good. Thanks for the caution about meter readings and about BT -- will be alert to that.

Thank goodness I already have a UK bank account, so that is taken care of (and wow yes it was a struggle -- two banks turned me down until I had a solid address!)

Do the meter readings but be prepared for collection notices if the people living there before you ran out on the bills, even if you have switched things into your own name already.

This happened to my husband twice, all we needed to do was fax a copy of the tenancy agreement, but it was stressful.   

Just make sure that when you move in that you take the meter readings so that you don't get stuck with paying for energy used by previous tenants.

And don't forget the water meter, if the place is on metered service.

One other point regarding the telephone line:  Beware if the previous occupant had DSL service and may not have canceled or transferred the contract properly.   If the DSL side of the line is still tagged as "belonging" to Acme Internet Services, then you will have a devil of a job to get service on that line from the company you want until you get a MAC from Acme Internet Services and that tag can be removed.   The less-than-helpful reply you will often get from BT in such a case is that the only way to get DSL service without the previous provider relinquishing control is to have a new line installed - And pay the appropriate fee for it.

It took BT about 3 months to turn on the phone when we first moved in our flat, Why so long? well apparently the geniuses, no word of a lie, kept calling our "future" phone number, the one we'd have after they turned on the phone line, to confirm, but surprise surprise no one answered, and so they canceled. The first bill was nearly £250, £63.48 for "line rental", one off charge of "£106.37", £4.50 in "payment charges" which is the charge for having to process payments to them, the cost of calls £38.40, 4 calls totaling 2 hours, 6 minutes and 4 seconds, and of course £31.32 in VAT. (the bill is on my desk, I haven't memorized it =p)

It took 4 months to get internet turned on, we ordered it last week of January, and we finally got it turned on today.

Heat and hot water only took a little over a month.

But yea no deposits, except the internet may make you pay for the year upfront, depending on which provider you go with.


BT sucks, avoid them if you can. Best of luck!

the internet may make you pay for the year upfront, depending on which provider you go with.

Never heard of this happening before...

yep, some require you pay for the year, others you can pay by the month but you sign a year contract, and there are a few that let you just pay by the month.

also be cautious of promises of super high speeds if you go dsl, as the the average speeds possible are about 3-4 Mbps, and in many rural area it only gets up to 2 Mbps.

Despite this many companies will offer higher priced packages for up to 8Mbps, when depending on your location, it isn't really possible, so you may end up paying more for nothing.

I was payed to do research on the UK Broadband industry a couple years ago, yes yes very exciting, so if anyone has any questions regarding broadband, I'd be glad to help.

It took BT about 3 months to turn on the phone when we first moved in our flat, Why so long? well apparently the geniuses, no word of a lie, kept calling our "future" phone number, the one we'd have after they turned on the phone line, to confirm, but surprise surprise no one answered, and so they canceled.

Why does that not surprise me?      I'm afraid that BT has gone downhill rapidly over the years (I'm speaking as somebody who is an ex-BT engineer, by the way - I joined BT right from school). 

It's bad enough dealing with customer services where half the time the people can't answer relatively simple questions, or they insist on following their printed script like a zombie even when it should be blatantly obvious that most of it is irrelevant.  But then half the people dealing with the queries now have never set foot in the U.K. and know nothing about the system beyond what they've been told in their basic training (which is clearly too basic).   

If it's any consolation, even BT staff express the same difficulties.  The last couple of current BT engineers I chatted with when I had the chance a couple of months ago were telling me how even their procedures are now bogged down with this same nonsense, e.g. having to contact some call center half way around the world to get the go ahead to do some trivial little job and speaking with people who don't seem to understand what's going on.   It's not the BT I knew, for sure, although admittedly some of the faults and apparent unfairness in the system are not down to BT but the regulations enforced upon the company.

also be cautious of promises of super high speeds if you go dsl, as the the average speeds possible are about 3-4 Mbps, and in many rural area it only gets up to 2 Mbps.

2 Mbps is optimistic in many rural areas.   A little over 1 Mbps is about the best one can expect where I live, for example, which is about 5 miles from the serving C.O.   The lines simply can't support any higher speeds reliably.

Many ISPs don't make any distinction on speed vs. price at the lower end of the range now though.  Two or three years ago it was still common to see packages which offered different pricing options for 0.5, 1, 2 Mbps service etc., but most (maybe all?) ISPs have dropped that now, simply giving a basic service of "up to 8 Mbps," the actual speed being determined only by the electrical restrictions imposed by the line.