New homeowner advice

NeedCoffeeNow

Hello. Hopefully sometime in the next week I'll be exchanging and completing on my new home but I'm not sure how things work with utilities. From what I can understand from searching this forum:

1. The suppliers for the previous owner becomes my new suppliers.

2. I'm not tied into any contract by these suppliers and can move to a new supplier without penalties.

I'm thinking of using Ebico as I believe myself to be a low user (approx £500 a year each for gas and electric). The current owner has a pre-pay meter for electric. Would this cause any problems when changing suppliers?

Any advice is appreciated.

macman

Yes, you are in a deemed account with the existing suppliers (for gas and electricity), you need to register with them before you can switch. As long as you register for a tariff without a lock in, you can start the switch as soon as you have an account, it will take 4-6 weeks. Use a comp site with your estimated annual kWh figures to find the best deal.
I'd be surprised if (assuming a property with gas CH and DHW), your bills are 50/50 between the two-gas should be much the higher one.
Ebico are cheap for low users, but £1000pa isn't really very low usage-the comp site will tell you all you need to know.
For water, you must register with the regional supplier-there is no choice.

NeedCoffeeNow

Thanks for the reply. I was trying to remember bills from a couple of years back when I had a flat in London. I was wondering where the cut off point for a low user was so it's good to know.

macman

You'll need to apply for a new card for the PPM too.