How to start Council Tax, Gas, Electric, Water in new home

MarkColinSmall

Newbie to the property ladder.

I am moving into my first ever property and just received my Exchange and Completion dates.

Currently I am living with my parents and don't have any Council Tax, Gas, Electric or Water bills to worry about.

My new house is currently occupied by the current owners, who I guess will contact their Council and Utilities companies with their final meter readings and to confirm they are moving out.

What are the steps and how do I go about starting my Council Tax, Gas, Electric and Water, at my new address on the Completion date which is the 20th December?

Any hints and tips would be gratefully received.

Mark

Bookworm105

you contact the relevant bodies and tell them your name and address and that you are now the new bill payer

if you want to change utility provider(s) that is best done after you have moved in rather than trying to do in on the day the old people move out 

be careful about meter readings on the day the old people move out. Not unknown for some to give earlier day's reading and thus leave you to pay for whatever they use before they actually leave. Strictly speaking the meters should be read as the last thing they do walking out the door and the first thing you do when walking in - and you hope both figures agree! (Assuming of course you "take possession" ie. enter the property on the same day as they leave)

TheJP

The conveyancing process should tell you who the utilities providers are, you will be set up as a new account holder with existing providers for 30 days to then shop around to change if you wish. The council will send you a notification to set you up as a payer.

Brie

First thing to do when you get access to the property (aka the current owners have moved out) take meter readings for everything possible.  Take photos, preferably date and time stamped.  

Call up the council and tell them when you own the place and the current owners have left.  You don't need to pay tax until you own it but they may move out 2 weeks before that when it's still their bill.  

Water bills are fairly straight forward and frankly, in my opinion, the easiest companies to deal with.  You will possibly have 2 bills.  One for water coming in and another for water going out.  Why?  Because.  But if you can get readings and give it to the company that deals with the water in then they'll update the water out peeps.  At least that's what happens where I live. 

Gas & electric are different in that you will be with whatever company(s) the current owners are with so you will need to know what company(s) that is/are and give them the readings.  Otherwise they will make estimates that can be way off reality.   You can find out what tariff you are on (likely their variable rate one), see if you can figure out how much that might cost you and then see if there's a different company you want to move to.  Cheapest tariffs tend to be for those paying by direct debit and dual fuel.  

As you are a bit of an unknown not having any use history you might need to use the previous owners usage as your guidelines for what your monthly payments need to be.  Or you can see if you can get a variable DD instead of a fixed one.  Fixed is nice for budgeting but variable means you don't run up a huge credit is your DD is set too high.  

Ask the current owners to leave a copy of a year's bills for water, gas and electric as that at least will give you some guidance.  But remember that what they have paid is not what you might pay.  If you are a single person who's rarely at home that will be very different use compared to a family with 2 adults and 3 kids.  

Talk to your parents about their bills - it's surprising what you might find out about them and their money habits and they might have some good advice for you too!  My MiL gave us a list of what she was paying every month for all the major things just to help us set up a budget.

Don't forget about the other things like broadband, TV licence (if applicable), house insurance etc.  And change your address with DVLA and all the other things too.

Jude57

MarkColinSmall said:

Newbie to the property ladder.

I am moving into my first ever property and just received my Exchange and Completion dates.

Currently I am living with my parents and don't have any Council Tax, Gas, Electric or Water bills to worry about.

My new house is currently occupied by the current owners, who I guess will contact their Council and Utilities companies with their final meter readings and to confirm they are moving out.

What are the steps and how do I go about starting my Council Tax, Gas, Electric and Water, at my new address on the Completion date which is the 20th December?

Any hints and tips would be gratefully received.

Mark

This will be a long post but hopefully helpful.

I wouldn't do anything until you've had confirmation from your solicitor that exchange of contracts has taken place. That's when both you and the vendor are legally tied in to the transaction and your completion date will be fixed. Once you know your completion date, contact your local Council Tax department to let them know you'll be the liable party from XX date. You'll probably be able to do this online so check the Council website. Remember, too, to apply for Single Occupant Discount, assuming you'll be the only adult occupant, the 25% reduction. You must apply because it isn't automatically awarded. Opt to pay your Council Tax by monthly instalments. These run from April to January in a full year and it means that you don't pay in February and March so once you're used to setting that money aside every month, Feb and March are like a little bonus!  For your first bill, though, you might be given instalments up to March. In any event, you'll be able to work out how much your Council Tax will be by checking on the Council website so start setting money aside from the completion date so that you have it available even if it takes a while to receive your first bill. As to gas, electric and water, first thing on completion date take meter readings with photographs. For gas and electric it's up to you which suppliers you choose so have a look at the energy threads on MSE and make your decision, remembering that there's often a Dual Fuel discount for having both utilities from the same supplier, and for paying by direct debit. You'll be able to do all this online. For water, you should be able to find out which water company covers the area and again, register online. For the utilities, you might have to pay the existing providers for the first few days of your ownership until your chosen suppliers take over which is why accurate meter readings are vital. Don't forget to organise broadband, too.

One thing you'd be wise to do, too, would be to take out buildings insurance from the date you exchange contracts. That's when you gain an insurable interest in the property and again, look around for the best choice for your situation. You can add contents insurance from the date of completion and you should think very carefully about how much cover you need. Consider what it would cost to replace every single thing in your home, from your toothbrush and toothpaste, every item of clothing, every piece of Tech, every item of furniture, every household appliance, every book you own, every carpet or piece of flooring, wallpaper, light fittings etc. I never gave it much thought until a friend's house caught fire (luckily she wasn't home) and she lost everything but her car and the clothes she was wearing because what wasn't burned was ruined by the water used to put the fire out. As traumatic as that was, at least she was properly insured so that she was able to have her house rebuilt and re-equipped and replace everything. 

You'll need to notify your employer, car insurance, bank, credit cards and any other organisations you deal with of your new address once your completion date is fixed. Again, you'll be able to do most of that online.

Finally, something I've found useful is to have a separate bank account from which I pay household bills, excluding food. I've got a separate current account which I move an amount to every month on payday by Standing Order and from that all my household direct debits are paid out. I tend to round up to the nearest £5 so if a bill is £36 per month, I round up to £40 so that when the payment increases every year, it's less of a shock! It's also a little extra savings. Doing this means I know that my priority costs are always covered and I'm not trying to find money to cover any direct debits during the month. The more regular payments you can do monthly, the better, unless you're extremely good at setting money aside for annual costs like car insurance. If you can find an interest-bearing or cashback account to use as your bills account, so much the better, but be aware they generally require a certain level of deposit each month so make sure yours will meet that requirement.

Good luck with the purchase. I hope you're very happy in your new home.

horsewithnoname

You may need a telly licence. If so, you can do that on line

user1977

Jude57 said:

MarkColinSmall said:

Newbie to the property ladder.

I am moving into my first ever property and just received my Exchange and Completion dates.

Currently I am living with my parents and don't have any Council Tax, Gas, Electric or Water bills to worry about.

My new house is currently occupied by the current owners, who I guess will contact their Council and Utilities companies with their final meter readings and to confirm they are moving out.

What are the steps and how do I go about starting my Council Tax, Gas, Electric and Water, at my new address on the Completion date which is the 20th December?

Any hints and tips would be gratefully received.

Mark

I wouldn't do anything until you've had confirmation from your solicitor that exchange of contracts has taken place. That's when both you and the vendor are legally tied in to the transaction and your completion date will be fixed. 
You'll need to notify your employer, car insurance, bank, credit cards and any other organisations you deal with of your new address once your completion date is fixed. 

No need to do any of that until completion has actually happened. Admittedly it's only a small chance that it will be delayed (or not happen at all) once you've exchanged contracts, but would be a PITA to unravel if you have to change everything again, and no real advantage in doing it earlier.

Only things to do in advance are: telecoms (as they will need some sort of advance notice), and as you mention, buildings insurance from exchange (and for other people, mail redirection, but I presume the OP's parents can pass on anything which comes for you).

Maahes

Do everything online after you get the keys. No need to do anything with utilities / council tax beforehand

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/finding-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator

Create an account with the property's current supplier and then move supplier if you want to at your leisure.

https://www.water.org.uk/customers/find-your-supplier

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker

theartfullodger

Never trust previous account holders to do things right.

Write or email (keep copies) to all with dates, your name etc, any meter readings (take photos & keep them).  

Look into moving to better (cheaper) suppliers. 

tacpot12

You need to start your home insurance from the point you exchange contracts, as you have a contract to buy the property so you need to start insuring it from that point.

Make sure you include legal expenses insurance as part of your home insurance. So many times people come to the MSE forums looking for advice about work, tradespeople, cars, items they have purchased, etc. and the advice they need is legal advice from a solicitor. Legal Expenses insurance makes sure you can get that advice at very low cost. 

our_des

Some great advice from others here, one think I would add: use cashback sites (Topcashback/Quidco) when setting up your utilities/broadband/tv. There's some great deals for broadband and/or TV packages through them plus getting some money back (does take a few weeks-months) is helpful, there's links for them on the main MSE pages.

If you've not already, make a spreadsheet for budgeting & add a tab for things you need to set up/change details of then you can tick them off as you go. 

tacpot12 is spot on with the legal protection on your home insurance, it's something you may never use but worth its weight if you do.