Switching not so straight forward

cyberrich

I moved into my bunglaow a month ago. It had been empty for a long time. Not sure how long as an old man had moved out and then died several months later in a nursing home. I bought the bungalow and I set up energy with green star, via a phone call from iammoving.com who called me at home after I had filled out a form on their website. Green star have taken one payment so far, the payment says to hudson energy on my bill though. I've just had a letter from Flow energy saying they are my supplier as they supplied the previous occupant. I never gave this a thought as it had been empty so long. They will want payment for the last month too. I'm guessing I will have no choice but to pay twice. I'm wishing I had waited now til i moved instead of filling the iammoving form in. I thought it might take the stress out of moving as there is so much to think about anyway, but this will be an expensive lesson to learn.

footyguy

cyberrich wrote: »

I moved into my bunglaow a month ago. It had been empty for a long time. Not sure how long as an old man had moved out and then died several months later in a nursing home. I bought the bungalow and I set up energy with green star, via a phone call from iammoving.com who called me at home after I had filled out a form on their website. Green star have taken one payment so far, the payment says to hudson energy on my bill though. I've just had a letter from Flow energy saying they are my supplier as they supplied the previous occupant. I never gave this a thought as it had been empty so long. They will want payment for the last month too. I'm guessing I will have no choice but to pay twice. I'm wishing I had waited now til i moved instead of filling the iammoving form in. I thought it might take the stress out of moving as there is so much to think about anyway, but this will be an expensive lesson to learn.

You won't pay twice for the same energy, but you cannot switch supplier until you have a supplier (like you cannot switch a bank account without having a bank account)

So you need to register with the existing supplier first - then you will have a supplier to switch from

Simples! :cool:

Good luck!

System

Hi welcome to the forum. Sorry about the stress; unfortunately, you failed to appreciate that all properties have what is called a Deemed Supplier to provide you with energy on the day that you moved in. You were in a contract with that supplier. Check your bills: it is more than likely that you are only being charged for the energy used up until the actual date of transfer. This will be at the Deemed Supplier’s standard variable rate.

However, If Flow are treating Greenstar’s attempt to take over your supply as an erroneous transfer of supply, you need to speak to Flow and agree a start date and meter reading/s. You are then free to start another switch back to Green star

I repeat: you will not pay two suppliers for the same amount of energy. You can only have one supplier at a time for gas and electricity.

PS. check Flow’s tariffs: they are quite competitive.

cyberrich

Thank you for the help! Yes it is extremely stressful moving and I don't know how i got into this mess with 2 suppliers. As the property had been empty for the best part of a year, i never dreamt i'd be legally bound to Flow, the previous supplier. Problem is Green star have taken one payment already. I'll phone both companies tomorrow and try to sort it out. Do you think Green star will agree to refund me so i can pay it to Flow, and hopefully then I can agree on a proper switch date to green star.

trickytree1963

They should refund you if you are still in a contract with Flow. Maybe the Direct Debit Guarantee will kick in if they get sticky? As they don't currently supply you they cannot as far as I can see claim they can keep your money?

I'd certainly check Flow's tariffs they might be cheaper than the company you tried to join.