Moved house - contacting supplier without getting tied in

PlumbingTheDepths

Hi,
I bought a house about a week ago, and have been waiting to be contacted by the energy suppliers (I expected that they would be in touch pretty quickly).

I haven't heard anything so had a read of the conveyancing paperwork, and it appears that the supplier for Electric and Gas is Sainsburys.

I will be contacting them to give them the meter readings but I want to make sure that I don't get tied into a contract by default (I'm pretty sure that I will want a different supplier).

Should I contact then first and give them the readings, or should pick a new supplier first and get them to do a switch?

I'm pretty sure that I need to contact Sainsbury's first and, if so, is there anything that I need to do to make sure that I don't sign up to a contract by default?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

northwalesd

You need to contact Sainsbury's first. You won't be tied into a fixed contract (unless you agree that with them) and can start your switch any time after that.

System

PlumbingTheDepths wrote: »

Hi,
I bought a house about a week ago, and have been waiting to be contacted by the energy suppliers (I expected that they would be in touch pretty quickly).

I haven't heard anything so had a read of the conveyancing paperwork, and it appears that the supplier for Electric and Gas is Sainsburys.

I will be contacting them to give them the meter readings but I want to make sure that I don't get tied into a contract by default (I'm pretty sure that I will want a different supplier).

Should I contact then first and give them the readings, or should pick a new supplier first and get them to do a switch?

I'm pretty sure that I need to contact Sainsbury's first and, if so, is there anything that I need to do to make sure that I don't sign up to a contract by default?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

You are on what is known as a Deemed Contract with the existing suppliers. You will be charged at the supplier's standard variable rate until such time as (a) you agree to a fixed tariff with that supplier or (b) you switch to another supplier and the actual transfer of supply goes through. This can take up to 5 weeks from application to switch. The moral here is: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.

Anthorn

My experience of moving to a new property is with Scottish Power.

I phoned them to tell them I was due to move. They cancelled my existing fixed tariff which would take effect in 3 weeks and I had to start a new contract at my new property which meant switching from the current supplier to the property which was British Gas. That was done as usual as a switch and my old account at my previous property showed as "closed" and my new account with a different fixed tariff at my new address was open.

I suppose that at the point of moving, closing my old account and opening a new account I could have escaped the fixed tariff exit fees and opened an account with a different supplier my new address.