Npower Tariff?

Adele2811

My husband and I have just moved into a rented property that used to be a shop and has now been converted into a flat. I called Western Power who told me that Npower supplied the electric, so I called them to advise them of our moving-in date. Apparently, the landlord of the property (who we have never actually met, we went through an agency) has not advised Npower that the property is now a domestic rather that a business premises. Npower told me that they would switch it over to a domestic tariff but that it would take around 6 weeks? So, I wanted to check.....

i) Does 6 weeks sound like a reasonable amount of time for this?
ii) Will the fact that we will be on a business electricity tariff for the first 6 weeks have an effect on how much we get charged for our electric (either in a good or bad way!)?

Sorry if this isn't enough information, we had prepayment key meters in our previous two flats so I'm not very clued up on this!

Magpye

They should be able to change you to a domestic tariff virtually immediately, as this is a price change. However, they will also have to change the profile of your supply, which may well take six weeks.

Be careful here, as your previous landlord may have been supplied electricity on a contract and the change of tenancy will have invalidated this contract. You may be left on commercial out of contract or "tariff" rates if they still have this supply marked as a commercial in their system. This will be extremely costly. You may also be charged at a higher VAT rate and be charged Climate Change Levy.

I would make sure that they know this is now for domestic purposes and make it clear that you want domestic rates and charges. Your landlord should have sorted all this out for you already prior to renting it as a domestic property - I would probably take him up on it (but then I am a bolshy madam.)

Does the property have gas, as you may find you have a similar situation there.

HTH

Magpye

Terrylw1

Hi,

They can key your tariff change into their system while you are on the phone. They can only bill you to your status, in this case domestic.

You will only really suffer on VAT & climate change levy if you use 34 units a day, thats the policy.

Don't accept 6 weeks. it take 2 seconds over the phone...it's just an excuse.

Regardless of contract, they can't hold you to it since the property has gone through a change of use.

As far as the rates, they could be higher or lower, depends on the size of the business/contract etc.