Putting bills on hold while moving

JuliaOnTheMove

Hi, I am about to move from Scotland to England for work. I currently own a small flat in Scotland and I am thinking of buying a similar place in England when I move. However, since I am moving from one end of the country to the other, I am thinking of temporarily moving into shared accommodation (i.e. furnished, with bills included in the rent) while I look for a place to buy. I would like to sell my existing flat and put my belongings into storage.

I have looked at the terms and conditions of some of my utilities (gas, electric, broadband) and most of them allow you transfer the existing contract to a new home. Some have hefty penalties for cancelling contracts early. 

My question is this: Is it possible to put contracts for utilities on hold while you are renting and looking for somewhere long-term to move to? Does anyone have experience of this? Or does anyone have suggestions for alternative solutions to my situation? My current flat is my first flat and I have never moved as part of a chain. It sounds like something that is best avoided though.

tightauldgit

At the end of the day you will only know if you ask your providers but I would imagine that the answer would be no. I always thought that for most utilities moving out was enough to cancel the contract without penalty though not for broadband usually.

Your broadband provider might be willing to put the contract on hold for a month if you had a reason - e.g. there's no phone line at your new place - but it would be at their discretion.

Check the terms of your contracts as it will be spelled out there what happens with early termination.    

JuliaOnTheMove

Hi, yes, it's the broadband that I'm most worried about, though none of them mention putting bills on hold. Gas and electric actually come up for renewal about a month before the move, so I'm hoping I might find a supplier with no penalties in the t&cs.

macman

Gas and electricity contracts cannot be transferred between properties. A few suppliers will allow you to port a specific tariff between properties, but you always start a new account at the new property. However this is rare, and pointless at present, as there is nothing new that is cheaper than SVT under the EPG. Are you currently on a cheap fix? If so, your change of address will void the fixed term contract. However if no-one is moving in, then you remain liable for the account until they do, or it is sold, so standing charges will accrue.
Once you occupy the new property, you are in a deemed contract with the existing suppliers, with whom you must register and supply opening reads to. Once that is done, you can start a switch if you wish to, pointless though it currently is.
I can't imagine that any supplier would be willing to allow you to port your tariff over an unspecified period while you look for another property to live in.

tightauldgit

JuliaOnTheMove said:

Hi, yes, it's the broadband that I'm most worried about, though none of them mention putting bills on hold. Gas and electric actually come up for renewal about a month before the move, so I'm hoping I might find a supplier with no penalties in the t&cs.

If your utilities come up for renewal before you move out then just stick on the non-contract standard tariff and you won't have to worry about exit penalties. 

When does your broadband expire?

macman

There aren't any fixes available at present anyway, so the issue won't arise. You'll be transferred to SVT by default and that will continue until you sell or let the property.

Singlemummy_2

When I sold my house it had tenants in it who moved out before it went on market. as I was still the owner I was still responsible for the bills.

I was able to get the water turned off but kept that gas/electric topped up to a minimum to cover the standing charges. it was on a meter so was able to do this via the app and could check it though I popped round periodically to check the house. When it sold they ended up owing me about £45 which they sent a cheque for.

It didn’t have broadband as the tenant would have been responsible and so assume they cancelled or moved to their new property.

Also had to continue paying council tax though received an empty property discount from the council and I continued paying the insurance as had paid for the year. I then had to renew it after the year was up, as the sale hadn’t quite completed but moved to monthly and was able to get a full refund as I completed about a week or so later 

JuliaOnTheMove

Hi Singlemummy_2, your experience is really helpful. Thank you. I didn't know you can get empty property discounts on the council tax. I may need to look into that. 

tightauldgit, my broadband won't expire until about 6 months after I am hopping to buy a new place.

macman, thanks for explaining this in so much detail. I am on a two year fix from before prices rose, so I'm very lucky with that. I am bracing myself for incredibly high prices once that expires.

ProDave, does your referal code have an expiry date? I am only in the early planning stages, so it's going to be a while before I actually need to look at switching.

Jonboy_1984

Last time i cancelled broadband within a contract the fee was much less than the normal payments, something like £7 for each month for the loss of profit element only, as the provider wasn’t incurring costs to BT openreach etc.

Might be worth checking out with your provider.

JuliaOnTheMove

Thanks! That gives me hope.