short term utilities?

Grouchy

Hello
Wonder if anyone can help me. I have just taken back a property I own from tenants. My property is now up for sale. In the meantime I will visit the property every couple of weeks for a few days to clean and maintain the garden. So is it possible to get gas and electricity to suit this purpose? So I suppose no or minimal standing charge, no contract, no termination fee. I'm expecting the property to sell within 3 months, hopefully!

I would do the research myself, but am having to rely at the moment borrowing a friends broadband dongle to access the internet and want to keep that to a minimum. So not being lazy. Though admit I was unprepared I have no idea who the tenants got to provide gas and elec.

Thanks for any help.

Terrylw1

The first thing to do is trace who the current suppliers are.

If your tenants had an agreement from you that stated they pay for the utilities, you enter into a Deemed contract with the current supplier for the periods where you have no tenants.

So, trace your elec via finding your post code by clicking on the regions on this map, then Google the name of the distributor and call their MPAS to find out the elec supplier.

http://www.energylinx.co.uk/electricity_distribution_map.htm

Now trace your gas via this one.

http://www.energylinx.co.uk/independent_gas_transporters.htm

In terms of the rest, since your consumption will be very low, the rates won't mean much so have a look on the comparison sites for low standing charge and no lock ins as you said. Be wary of Npowers gas seasonal weighting since you need more consumption to get you into the cheaper rate and if you are using some gas heating for viewings/work, you could get stung but it depends if you are going to exceed the quarterly primary prices of the others.

Grouchy

Hi and thank you for that.
I had a little look around on the time I have and it appears Ebico will be my best bet as there are no tie ins, no cancellation, no standing charge. though unit prices are probably higher I think that is what would be best as consumption will be low.

Thanks for thar info.

Grouchy

I'm posting this for info for others who it might help, but will keep this dodgy tale short.

Turned out the existing suppliers for gas and elec was British Gas. Called them to do the necessary and they were really asserting about keeping me on. I said their packages didn't offer the deal I was after and was looking elsewhere first before deciding. Immediately they offered me a special Standard rate that was discontinued, but would do it for me. So no tie ins, no contract, no cancellation and no standing order. While I am happy with this deal I am really livid that they are obviously not treating everyone equally and will give you the most expensive option until you imply you are looking elsewhere or start the embarrassing cajoling and challenging (hateful way to conduct a discussion I think).

What an appalling way to do business, and I suppose illegal or at least discriminatory.

.

Terrylw1

Yes, I wonder how that applies to Standard Licence Condition (SLC) 25A about discrimination.

Its always the case that in retention, suppliers try and offer you something that is already available that you didn't know about, attempting to seem like they are offering something extra.

I would wait and see what happens. It could be that a dodgy sales agent conned you into a tariff that won't get applied with it being end date. In some supplier systems it wouldn't work anyway so once you complained, it would need some working around with the dates yo do it. On this basis, I would call again in a week or so and check you are on that tariff.