Estate Agents taking commission on Utilities?

dogshome

I've noticed several posts involving problems caused by the Estate Agents for a rental property, switching the Utility supplier for that property whilst it is between an outgoing and a new incoming tenant ( See MoodyBlues recent post )

The normal procedure would be that the incoming tenant takes Gas/Elec from the previous tenants Utility supplier, and can change to someone else if they want to after a few weeks
And as more and more people are getting clued up about the tariffs available, there is a strong possibility that the previous teneant would have already sorted a reasonable deal for that particular property.

It can only be assumed that EA's motive to change the Utility supplier is some sort of payment from the new supplier, but it follows that the EA will be going for greatest cash benifit and not the best deal for the tenant.

Also when you change supplier, the responsibility for paying the bills of the new supplier come with it.
Yet somehow there seems to be a special arrangement whereby the EA makes the Switch, but does not take resonsibility for the bills

If you have had your Utility switched by an EA, or a like problem, then please post and include the name of the new supplier so we can all see which one has dreamed up this latest wheeze

Plushchris

I've not had it happen to me personally but everytime I've read about it on here (somebody posts something like this every now and then) its almost always been Southern Electric or Utility Warehouse

As far as you saying the previous tennents sorting out a good deal is concerned, thats partly right, it may be the right suppliers for the new tennant but it will not be the cheapest tariff as all suppliers revert back to their standard tariff paying quarterly until instructed otherwise.

dogshome

Hi all - MoodyBlues has had fair value in good advice from some of the regulars on this site, but his/her problems would not have occured if the Estate Agent had not put his finger in the pie for a few shekals - What is a few ? £5, £50, £100, £100+ ?

There is no getting away from the fact that the normal rules of switching have been suspended by at least one utility so that EA's have the authority to change the utility supplier for a property, and yet pass the responsibility for the bills onto a 3rd party who has no knowledge of the change of supplier for the 'deemed contract that he is legally bound to accept
The more aware the new tenant is, the worse it gets - any one with experience of Utility bills will have asked questions about heating/lighting costs before entering a tenancy agreement, then having signed they are in a different world

Please can we have posts on personal experiences of this scam to gather enough evidence to move it on up to an official compaint

AngelBadger

It could also be the landlord who is doing it. Although thankfully my landlord has agreed to allow me to change the suppliers (contract says can't change unless have an agreement), he had a good go at persuading me to stay with Utility Warehouse, he had a good sales pitch. He is a property developer and I had the thought that he probably has a deal with UW for all his properties.

dizziblonde

Our letting agent tried to pull this stunt with us (not surprisingly it was Utility Warehouse they wanted to switch it to - ho hum). They tried to present it as a fait accompli, that we had no way to object to it, and that it was going to save us money - no "if you'd like we'd recommend this" or similar just a "from X date we're transferring all the properties on our books to this supplier."

Sharpish backed down when I threatened to find an alternative property where I was free to choose the supplier I have to say - but it was pretty intimidating and bordering on bully boy tactics at the time.

glider3560

I've just found some information on the Utility Warehouse website.

You can earn £3.75 for getting someone to switch supplier, then 2.3-5.3% of bills once you've referred six customers.

Nice little earning for letting agents.