Gas/Electricity in new house

Cheesedoodles

We completed on our house yesterday and are now happy homeowners!!

Gas and Electricity has previously been supplied by Southern Electric and i know that bill has been settled by the previous owners.

Ive just used topcashback to get £110 for "switching" to Scottish Power. During the online application it asked me about the previous supplier, how much we paid etc.

I entered a rough guesstimate based on our previous house.

When I submitted the application I was told they will contact "my current" provider and swap the electricity over in 4-6 weeks.

Will I now be billed by southern electrics until the switch? Southern electrics dont even know we are the new owners and I have no intention of telling them since I want to move to Scottish Power and also get the 110 cashback.....

espresso

You are supplied by Southern Electric and you can only switch to another supplier after accepting that the current supplier will continue to supply the property until the switch date. You will be charged for all energy used that is supplied by Southern Electric.

Premier_2

Contact Southern Electric and give them meter readings when you completed/moved in.

You are using their energy and they will want paying for it.

If you don't do this before SP contact them, you may find your switch cancelled because they can't find you as an existing customer

Cheesedoodles

Hi,

I just phoned Southern Electric, gave them the meter readings and they put my name on the bill . I told them I was not sure which supplier I would chose yet and the very friendly lady on the phone said my name was now on the bill and I could chose to go wherever I wanted..

I hope I caught it in time and that I get my casback

Cheers guys.

monkyhands

Hi there.

I read this with interest, as I should be completing on my new house this Friday.

The house has prepaid meters installed, which I will be hoping to get rid of. How do I find out who the current providers are?

I am looking to do some refurbishment work straight away, and so I would like the electricity to be working immediately - the gas is less important. How do I go about this? Can I put money on the current key, or do I need to get a new one? There may be some oustanding debt on the key, which clearly I would prefer not to pay - so is there a way to get round this, and still have the electricity switched on straight away?

Hope someone can help with this. As I am a first time house buyer, any other advise regarding how to set up my utilities would be greatly appreciated as well. The comparison sites seem to be of little use when I do not have a current supplier and usage to compare against.

Cheers.

Premier_2

You need to contact the existing suppliers who will set up new accounts for you and provide you new keys.

Easiest way to find out who the current suppliers are is to ask the people you are buying from (unless it's a repo).

If that fails:

How to identify your gas supplier

How to identify your electricity supplier