Business gas prices on residential property

silvercar

This situation can arise when a company owns the property that is rented out. The company probably had a good fixed rate deal from a business electricity supplier. When that fixed rate ended, the tariff changed to a standard one and that is what you were put on. 

The solution is to move supplier as you have done as the business arm of SSE won't be connected to the domestic arm.

Is it really reasonable to have a business tariff on a deemed contract for a domestic property?  Should my expectations or whats reasonably assumed not be a consideration? Are there any conditions for deemed contracts which would protect me from this situation?

Yes, SSE business have no other option. They continue to supply so it has to be on a deemed contract as that is all they have to offer. Your responsibility is to check your bill and decide to move away if the tariff you have been given is not to your liking. I would expect the conditions are to notify you of your tariff.

 final point to consider - all letters were written to my personal name yet I had never given them this information.  Any correspondence was going to a empty property.  

The previous owner would have terminated their contract and notified the supplier of meter readings and the date of leaving. They often supply the name of the new owner, but the supplier could find this out from Land Registry if needed. I don't think there is any claim to be made here.

_blueberry_

@MWT - Thanks for your responses.  From the suppliers perspective - I see your point.

I have now switched suppliers - this discussion is for the time period prior to the switch.  The supplier knew that the property was a residential one prior to my first contact and have confirmed so.  They continued to supply the property on business rates.

By the same argument as the above, the customer has no way of knowing that a residential property is being charged business rates - there is no reason to think it might be.  Deemed contracts are in place for specifically this purpose and my point here is that it would not be reasonably assumed that the deemed contract you are entering into is a business one, but a domestic one (protected by the price cap).

MWT

_blueberry_ said:

By the same argument as the above, the customer has no way of knowing that a residential property is being charged business rates - there is no reason to think it might be.  Deemed contracts are in place for specifically this purpose and my point here is that it would not be reasonably assumed that the deemed contract you are entering into is a business one, but a domestic one (protected by the price cap).

Details regarding your energy suppliers will be provided to you during the purchase process for the property, the onus is on you to make sure you are happy with that provider and their deemed tariff, and if not then change as soon as you complete on the purchase.

The most basic point here is that you cannot rely on assumptions, you do need to check exactly what you have agreed to by entering into a deemed contract with the existing supplier...

_blueberry_ said:

The supplier knew that the property was a residential one prior to my first contact and have confirmed so.  They continued to supply the property on business rates.

They really had no choice in that regard, as long as you remained in the property consuming energy they had to supply you on their deemed business rates... The action was in your hands to switch away, they could not cease to supply you, nor could they move you to a domestic tariff...

_blueberry_

@silvercar @MWT - thank you both.

Will drop it, unfortunate situation I guess but will have to cough it up!

Robin9

MWT said:

Details regarding your energy suppliers will be provided to you during the purchase process for the property

I don't know quite how the OP could know from just knowing the name of the supplier that it was a business supplier.

My business supplier is TotalEnergie   and many would say they don't recognize that name and start asking questions. But I've also been with BG and UW which it would be reasonable to assume are domestic tariffs.

MWT

Robin9 said:

MWT said:

Details regarding your energy suppliers will be provided to you during the purchase process for the property

I don't know quite how the OP could know from just knowing the name of the supplier that it was a business supplier.

My business supplier is TotalEnergie   and many would say they don't recognize that name and start asking questions. But I've also been with BG and UW which it would be reasonable to assume are domestic tariffs.

Not always possible just from the name, but in many cases it is obvious, but in all cases you do need to make contact as soon as possible after taking possession to establish which tariff you are on, at which point it will immediately be clear if there is a problem and steps can be taken to deal with it...

silvercar

It is going to happen more often as landlords set up single purpose vehicle (SPV) companies to own properties for the tax advantages. As they sell up, those properties may be on business rates, either because they were HMOs where the landlord is responsible for the utility bills or because the company took over the bill on a deemed contract once the tenant left before sale.

_blueberry_

Yes, and it seems the beneficiary would be the energy company.  There is no way for the new owner to know the terms which they are signing up for - at least for a period of time (however small that may be).  The damage may be limited with @MWT's suggestion of ensuring you call up ASAP and discuss the contract, but even then, the supplier would not be transferred immediately and would take days to come into effect.

If the purpose of deemed contracts are to smooth the transition and avoid losing a gas supply, but the suggestion is not to use the gas supply until you have switched your supplier then the whole thing seems pointless from a consumer perspective... 

Doesn't feel right to me but hey ho!

macman

Since a new customer on a deemed contract would surely be asking to be put onto SVT when registering, it should be obvious to both parties that the property was not registered as a domestic supply, because a) the tariff name would be something different to SVT, and b) the VAT rate would be 20%, not 5%.

Novice_investor101

When you contacted them straight after moving in to give them your details & meter readings, didn’t they set you up an account & send you the tariff/contract details? 

If you didn’t contact them & just used the gas assuming a deemed contract would suffice then that’s entirely your issue. 

It’s a bit like willingly eating in a restaurant that displays no prices & then being outraged when the bill shows up much higher than you were prepared to pay.