Standing Charge - Broker in administration

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Removing standard charge - how would you interpret this?.

juliefu

Good morning

Could I ask a question please.

I took out a gas contract for my small business (coffee shop) back in 2022, i wasn’t aware it was a 5 yr contract. My supplier is total energy. But on calling them the other day, I was told my contract (broker) was taken out with Great annual savings. So I contacted them, to find out this company went into administration a few years ago. So the company doesn’t exist. Where does this leave my contract?

The reason I contacted them is that my daily charge of £3.50 a day, far exceeds my gas usage a day. 

I’ve been told my contract is till 2027 and I can do nothing about it. My charges are astronomically high 😩😩

Please help and advise.

Julie

MeteredOut

juliefu said:

Good morning

Could I ask a question please.

I took out a gas contract for my small business (coffee shop) back in 2022, i wasn’t aware it was a 5 yr contract. My supplier is total energy. But on calling them the other day, I was told my contract (broker) was taken out with Great annual savings. So I contacted them, to find out this company went into administration a few years ago. So the company doesn’t exist. Where does this leave my contract?

The reason I contacted them is that my daily charge of £3.50 a day, far exceeds my gas usage a day. 

I’ve been told my contract is till 2027 and I can do nothing about it. My charges are astronomically high 😩😩

Please help and advise.

Julie

(you should ask admins to split this post out to a separate thread)

 What does your contract say about early termination? Based on previous similar posts here, it won't be cheap. Your contract may have been (or might be) rolled over to another supplier but your broker should be able to tell you who is supplying you. Your contract would not end at that point - it would roll over to the new supplier with the same end date.

Unfortunately, no-one here is going to be able to get you out of a contract you signed.

MSE_Stephen

HI @juliefu

We've split this into a new thread for you.

MWT

juliefu said:

So I contacted them, to find out this company went into administration a few years ago. So the company doesn’t exist. Where does this leave my contract?

The company still exists, and is still in administration, your contract will be one of the assets that the Administrators will be dealing with.

For now at least the Administration has no impact on your contract or your current supplier so no easy route out there.

BarelySentientAI

juliefu said:

I took out a gas contract for my small business 

And there is the problem.

Business owners get very little protection when compared to domestic customers.

Scot_39

How involved is the broker - now that you have the deal ?

Who sets the charges - like the now £3.50 stading charge - Total / Great etc - again should be covered - even if not in simple English - in the contract - look for terms like pass through charges.

You need to read the actual contract to differentiate between roles responsibilities now of Total Energy and the broker - or those administering or inheriting / purchasing the business rights if any.

Total clearly believes you have a five year deal.

Given you missed the 5 years on signing up - you may want to go over your contract "as signed" in some detail - and than resolve any queries with a professional - like you business accountant ?

As above administration doesn't necessarily end your original obligation or Totals (if they were paying an ongoing commission to Great) - administrators take over company assets / debts - and can then pass customers onto others - but you should perhaps by now have heard - depending on when the broker entered administration.

And as above - there may well be an early termination option - but beware these can be quite punitive.

But don't just assume that the broker being in admin ends your contract - others who have rushed to sign new deals as a business - have mistakenly ended up with 2 parallel contracts - and needing to buy themselves out of one or the other.

MWT

Scot_39 said:

Given you missed the 5 years on signing up - you may want to go over your contract "as signed" in some detail - and than resolve any queries with a professional - like you business accountant ?

As above administration doesn't necessarily end your original obligation or Totals (if they were paying an ongoing commission to Great) - administrators take over company assets / debts - and can then pass customers onto others - but you should perhaps by now have heard - depending on when the broker entered administration.

The broker only went into Administration a year ago, judging by the reports on Companies house they have been busy over that time and have recently had the period of administration extended by a year to May '25.

For the OP, keep in mind that there is no requirement to actually sign a contract, as a business you can give verbal agreement, so there may not be anything that you physically signed.

The requirements for notification of terms to a microbusiness changed in October 2022, when exactly did your contract start?