How does water, gas, electricity, broadband work when moving in to new rented property?

JustinBunn

Hi everyone, 

This is my first time renting. I only secured the property about 2 weeks ago. Im now wondering how i should go about fixing the water, energy, broadband bills. The previous tenants move out on a saturday and i will be moving in on the sunday. What normally happens with the bills? will they be signed over to my name on the day of the move or will they all be cancelled when i move in and i have to set things up fro scratch? the utilities are not included in the rent.

JJ_Egan

N bills are not signed over as such last occupier will have cancelled .

Gas Electric you are now on a deemed tariff with current supplier . Sign up with them and you are free to move off this expensive tariff .TAKE METER READINGS

Water if on a meter try to read it , bill will be to occupier but you can sign up .

Broadband / phone none you are free to choose and sign up .

luvchocolate

Also contact local council to register for council tax 
Take photos of all meters 

JustinBunn

JJ_Egan said:

N bills are not signed over as such last occupier will have cancelled .

Gas Electric you are now on a deemed tariff with current supplier . Sign up with them and you are free to move off this expensive tariff .TAKE METER READINGS

Water if on a meter try to read it , bill will be to occupier but you can sign up .

Broadband / phone none you are free to choose and sign up .

Thanks JJ for clarifying this. So on the day i will find out the energy providers and call them up and either sign up with them OR could i also cancel it and move to a new provider if I wanted to?

danrv

luvchocolate said:

Also contact local council to register for council tax 

Yes. They don’t hang about with their letters.
I rented for the first time (and last) a few years ago. In my experience, all the utilities have to be setup yourself from scratch. 

Robin9

 OR could i also cancel it and move to a new provider if I wanted to?

No as above you MUST contact the existing supplier and become a customer of theirs. Only then can you switch - any attempt to do anything else ends in tears. The new supplier then does all the contacting.

PS Don't forget to read your meters every month )keep your own records )  and give them to your suppliers - read and understand your bills. 

Gerry1

Start comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?' because they show all suppliers by default.  You'll have to guesstimate your annual consumption; average values are 12000kWh for gas and 2900kWh for electricity.  Tweak them as appropriate, obviously more for a large or draughty property, poor insulation, northern location, home all day, tropical preference etc, and vice versa.

Remember that separate suppliers for gas and electricity are often cheaper.  A very common misunderstanding is failing to realise that a fixed DD may increase if it turns out not to be sufficient to cover your actual usage.  No-one offers an All You Can Eat tariff, that's why there are meters.  Send meter readings monthly and keep independent records.

You may wish to start on tariffs without exit fees in case your guesstimate is way out or the customer service is poor.

Alter_ego

Whatever you do don't forget to take dated photos of all meters the day your tenancy starts.

macman

Water: you can't choose your supplier.
And don't forget to arrange your contents insurance.
Check that your deposit is protected and that your LL provides a valid GSC, EPC, EICR, and 'How to Rent' booklet. Any of these missing means your tenancy is not regularised.

Ectophile

Check with the water supplier what they do.  In my case, I needed to give them 48 hours notice, so they could read the meters themselves when I moved in.

pokora

Find out where are the meters, take pictures from the readings and if you don't have the information about the current suppliers for the property you should wait until you receive a letter from them if landlord don't give you the information. Also check you don't have prepay electric meter or another restriction in your rental agreement.

Water is the easiest, check which supplier cover your postcode. You won't be able to get an alternative. 

Broadband unless they left you the router and the account active you will start from scratch.