Making the most of the fixing rate 14-day cooling off period

myhousesalehell

Hi - I also wondered about the cooling off period. I am moving house in less than 2 weeks. I am considering the Utility Warehouse fixed deal (which does have a 14 day cooling off period). If I sign up to that deal  before it potentially disappears, can anyone foresee any issues if (worst case scenario) the sale fell through and I had to cancel? Thanks all.

Vincero

myhousesalehell said:

Hi - I also wondered about the cooling off period. I am moving house in less than 2 weeks. I am considering the Utility Warehouse fixed deal (which does have a 14 day cooling off period). If I sign up to that deal  before it potentially disappears, can anyone foresee any issues if (worst case scenario) the sale fell through and I had to cancel? Thanks all.

In theory it should be fine to cancel for any reason within the 14 day period. But of course, if the tariff was subsequently withdrawn you loose access to it.
You need to check their t&c and see how they handle it.

On the flip side, I don't know if you can sign up without knowing the meter numbers from an existing bill. Maybe you can speak to existing owners to get that info prior to moving.

Alnat1

You can't sign up until you actually own the property and you have to first go with the supplier who is already supplying it.

Once you have your account sorted with that supplier you are free to start a switch to whoever will take you on.

[Deleted User]

myhousesalehell said:

Hi - I also wondered about the cooling off period. I am moving house in less than 2 weeks. I am considering the Utility Warehouse fixed deal (which does have a 14 day cooling off period). If I sign up to that deal  before it potentially disappears, can anyone foresee any issues if (worst case scenario) the sale fell through and I had to cancel? Thanks all.

As switching (the actual transfer) now takes 5 days, you could end up with a lot of grief for the present owner and yourself. When you buy a house, the property has a deemed supplier. You cannot just dump this supplier. You need to contact the deemed supplier with details of when you became responsible for the property along with meter readings: you are then free to initiate a switch of supplier. The deemed supplier will bill you up to the date your transfer of supply goes through.

If you sign up to UW now, then it should be seen as an erroneous transfer of supply. You don’t own the property. If the switch does go through then the existing owner might be a very happy bunny as you will end up paying his energy costs.

What happens if the sale falls through? You are leaving the seller (and yourself) with a bucket load of problems to resolve.

Does the 14 day cooling off period still apply to 5 day switching? The answer is YES; however,…….

If you cancel on day 14 then you will already be on supply with the new supplier. It will then have to transfer your supply back to the previous supplier (in your scenario you don’t have one.)What could possibly go wrong?