Moving house and keeping current energy deal

Alexandra2022

I have a very good fixed rate energy deal with my current supplier. My current energy supplier is happy for me to keep the deal when I move house. However, the existing energy supplier has objected.
Does anyone know if it's possible to insist on the change in supplier before I take ownership, or will I have to wait until completion day to switch and run the risk of being unable to keep my current deal.
My current deal is substantially lower than anything else on offer.

MattMattMattUK

Alexandra2022 said:

I have a very good fixed rate energy deal with my current supplier. My current energy supplier is happy for me to keep the deal when I move house. However, the existing energy supplier has objected.
Does anyone know if it's possible to insist on the change in supplier before I take ownership, or will I have to wait until completion day to switch and run the risk of being unable to keep my current deal.
My current deal is substantially lower than anything else on offer.

It is not possible to do that now. 

What you need to do when you move in and legally own the property is to open an energy account with the incumbent supplier. Once you have done that you can the request to move to your supplier from the previous property and they can apply the relevant contract if they agree. You will have to pay SVT (price cap) rates to the existing supplier in the new property from the period when you move in until the transfer takes place, a few weeks at most so it will make little to no difference. 

sheramber

When I sold my house the buyer arranged to change supplier 2 weeks before the move so it was effective when he moved in.

i got an email confirming the change and queried it with my supplier as i had not requested it.

My supplier confirmed it was my buyer who had requested it.

TheJP

sheramber said:

When I sold my house the buyer arranged to change supplier 2 weeks before the move so it was effective when he moved in.

i got an email confirming the change and queried it with my supplier as i had not requested it.

My supplier confirmed it was my buyer who had requested it.

I would suggest you don't do this. Not only is it disrespectful to your seller it can cause all sorts of problems. When i sold my previous house the buyer did this with internet provider, i was notified that my service would end 3 days before i was due to move out and that i would incur charges as i was still in contract. It really annoyed me and was a real inconvenience to sort out.

PRAISETHESUN

Your contract with the energy supplier is to supply energy to your property, not to you specifically. By moving home you are breaking that contract, so your supplier has no obligation to continue to offer any preferential rates to you. They can if they want, but they don't have to.

And as above, as you are not the legal owner of the property, you don't have the right to try and force changes to the energy supplier. 

The proper way to do things is as follows: On the day you become owner, first thing to do is take some meter readings. You then contact the incumbent supplier to inform them that you are now the new owner and ask them to open an account for you, providing the meter readings. This will prevent you being charged for the previous owners usage. Once this has been done then you can contact your preferred energy supplier and ask to be switched to them. There will be a period (usually a few weeks) while the switch happens where you will be supplied energy by the incumbent supplier, before you can be set up with your preferred supplier.