Brand new rental property can I change suppliers

dieselhead

I have just moved into a rather lovely 1 bed house, very small, with gas boiler for heating. As it is brand new I am hoping that my bills will be quite small, my landlord has told me he has written to the energy suppliers to inform them of the agreed meter readings when I moved in. (although so far I have only received a reply from eon)

The suppliers are eon for elecricity and British Gas for gas. Although I don't currently know what my usage will be I am guessing this will not be the cheapest combination, ie no duel fuel discounts etc.

I have heard on the grapevine though that you cannot change your electricity/gas supplier for 6 months when moving into a new property is this true?

Does anyone else live alone in a very small property and could give me an idea of the best gas electricity company combo's, as I don't have any old bills yet?

Thanks!

(PSI have checked and my tenancy agreement does allow me to change the supplier)

Mynewt

The short answer is yes you can.

The longer answer is that sometimes it can take time for the develop and meter installers to update MPAS and EXOSERVE (electric and gas meter databases) with the technical details of the supply to the property. Until this has been done no other supplier will be able to find the supply number information they need to transfer your supply.

baby_frogmella

When i moved into my new build last year, i changed supplier a few days later (Eon> Scottishpower) so you don't have to wait for x amount of time before changing suppliers. Yes it usually works out cheaper if you get both your gas and electricity from the same supplier., though not always.

One word of warning regarding new builds: many developers (to save costs) choose put your property on an IGT gas pipeline supply which means your property is connected by a private company's pipeline to the main gas trunk line and this means that the IGT co. will charge your energy supplier extra to supply gas....most energy companies pass on this charge to customers typically £42 pa though some companies (eg SSE, British Gas) waive this charge. So do ring up your current supplier to ask if this charge applies to your property.

Mynewt

baby_frogmella wrote: »

most energy companies pass on this charge to customers typically £42 pa though some companies (eg SSE, British Gas) waive this charge.

All supplier's pass this cost on, unless the customer is on a social tarriff. It's just a quest of wether its itemised or hidden in the unit prices. The former is more fiar as only people on an IGT network pay the extra charge, the latter grossly unfair as everyone will pay the IGT charge (although not at a rate of £42.00 pa, just a smaller percentage of it.

That said if memory serves there's some changes coming with regards to how IGT's can charge for their services which will allow suppliers to itemise it differently and in theory it should be cheaper and fairer for the consumer.

(The IGT's will be chaging to charge on a per unit of gas transported basis rather than a flat fee regardless of supply.)

baby_frogmella

Mynewt wrote: »

All supplier's pass this cost on, unless the customer is on a social tarriff. It's just a quest of wether its itemised or hidden in the unit prices. The former is more fiar as only people on an IGT network pay the extra charge, the latter grossly unfair as everyone will pay the IGT charge (although not at a rate of £42.00 pa, just a smaller percentage of it.

Well in my area (North Scotland) Scottish power and Scottish Hydro have identical unit prices for gas (on their cheapest tariffs) and they are amongst the lowest in UK. Yet Scottish power charge £42 extra pa for a IGT supply and Scottish Hydro don't....so obviously more people will join a company which has low unit prices for gas and doesn't charge extra for IGT supply. Which explains why 11 weeks later my IGT gas supply still hasn't been transferred from Scottish Power to Scottish Hydro as the IGT co. have told Hydro that they have a huge backlog of applications :eek: (my leccy was transferred 4 weeks ago!)

Mynewt

Doesn't change too much just means that should Scottish Hydro switch to charging the IGT Charge on an itemised basis the unit rates would fall. (unless thay have already negoiated a contract on the method of IGT Charge I mentioned earlier)

Premier_2

dieselhead wrote: »

I have just moved into a rather lovely 1 bed house, very small, with gas boiler for heating. As it is brand new I am hoping that my bills will be quite small, my landlord has told me he has written to the energy suppliers to inform them of the agreed meter readings when I moved in. (although so far I have only received a reply from eon) ...

Whilst the better LLs will do this, you should also contact the suppliers yourself, giving them the start readings and allowing them to open an account in your name. You can do this by phone.

All the LL has effectively done is closed his accounts. A new supplier shouldn't open a new account in your name without your approval (unless they otherwise have good reason to). The supplier may be waiting for you to contact them.

You can request a switch of supplier without waiting, but not until you have an account in your name.

Another reason to contact the supplier is that if you don't they will be chargeing you on their standard tariff - you could probably get a better deal on a different tariff by the same supplier and they can set that up immediately if you ask, just ensure there are no early cancellation charges if they do think you will switch supplier.