How much notice should they give?

jen523

Hi

I've just received a letter from my electricity supplier (airtricity) informing me that my electric will increase 18.6% from 1st Oct 2011 - today is the 5th Nov and the letter wasn't even posted until 3rd Nov!! Should they not have informed me of the increases before - I mean they knew long before 1st Oct that the prices were going up. An extra 20% a month is a huge amount to include in a budget and then not to be told......i'm disgusted!!

DirectDebacle

They are required to give a minimum of 30 days advance notice. As they have failed in this you do not have to accept the price rise but you will have to change supplier. You are required to tell them that you are not accepting the price change and in addition you need to find a suitable supplier who will take care of the remainder of the switching process.

In the meantime your existing supplier cannot enforce the price increase upon you and must charge you at the pre-increase price until such time as you start with the new supplier. This can take up to six weeks or so.

Further they cannot charge you any termination fees. Check your contract carefully re the terms of any discounts you may be entitled to in case they try to avoid giving you these.

spiro

DirectDebacle - do the new rules (notice in advance) that apply to the England/Scotland/Wales market apply to NI? My understanding is that they have a different supply licence so maybe the rules dont match.

DirectDebacle

Well spotted. If the N.I. rules are different perhaps you should correct my post by explaining to the OP what they are.

spiro

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Well spotted. If the N.I. rules are different perhaps you should correct my post by explaining to the OP what they are.

Unfortunately I dont have a copy all I know is that things are different.