Gas and Electric in new house? What do I do next?

pierrored

My son moved into a new home last week and took the gas and electricity meter readings. The previous owners were with Southern Electric.
Does he have to ring SE and tell them he has moved in, give them his details and original meter readings, and ask to be put on one of their cheap tariffs?
OR
Can he sign up with another energy supplier without informing SE. Preferably this would be done online, through Quidco, after using a comparison website to find the best tariff.
Any help would be appreciated.

Terrylw1

He enters into a Deemed contract with the current supplier.

This can be on their standard rates so its worth checking if they offer cheaper options but beware any lock ins if he is planning to switch shortly afterwards as he won't want to pay early termination charges.

So, start an account now based on the start readings he took. Get what you can and shop around.

Switching takes 21 days after the cooling off period expires and his switch date will be inside that 21 days so he won't pay based on how long it takes to switch but to a switch date the new supplier submits.

You don't have to be with the current supplier for a period first, suppliers can use this process every 11th working day from the last switch.

ljones36

When we moved into our new property we had a bit of nightmare as the previous tenants had left without paying a large amount outstanding and they refused to change over until this was sorted even though we were new tenants. We used compare4us.com when we were comparing energy prices. The supplier we got was not on quidco, but you may find them there depending on your area.

After the outstanding bill issue we didn't have any problems switching suppliers.

Terrylw1

ljones36 wrote: »

When we moved into our new property we had a bit of nightmare as the previous tenants had left without paying a large amount outstanding and they refused to change over until this was sorted even though we were new tenants. We used compare4us.com when we were comparing energy prices. The supplier we got was not on quidco, but you may find them there depending on your area.

After the outstanding bill issue we didn't have any problems switching suppliers.

They can't do that, that's outside of Standard Licence Condition (SLC) 14.

If its not your debt, that's tough.

You should raise a complaint about them breaching their licence. Until customers come forward in volumes, Ofgem will sit back and do nothing...suppliers have been doing this for years and they know they are acting against their licence!