Fixing gas and electricity prices when moving home

SavingsSearcher123

I am currently on the standard rate after my fix ending last year but as my house was going on the market I didn't fix into a new tariff.  The house is now on the market but not under offer as yet.  My house has two separate meters for both gas and electricity as it has an annex and currently two separate providers for each part.  Obviously with OFGEM making its announcement for a rise in the price cap - what should I do?  I am not sure whether I will be buying a new property straight away, renting or living with family so I am not sure whether it will work out cheaper to stay on the standard rate or fix into new contracts and risk having to pay an exit fee which might be more than the increase?  Or get them both coming from the same supplier - would this make much difference?  If they were both the same would I only get one exit fee for each utility or is it per meter?  

Any help making a decision would be greatly appreciated!

Farway

Check what your new capped rate is, some have gone up or down significantly, then do your sums

Personally, for convenience and one less problem if & when you sell, I'd just sit tight on the capped for the moment

Yorkie006

Do you live at the property?
Is the annex occupied?

There are some suppliers that don't charge exit fees (Octopus is one of them, but there are others) so fixing at below price cap would save you money.

If the annex is not occupied (and no energy is used), you could switch to a provider with no standing charges (Utilita comes to mind) to save you on having to pay standing charges for an empty property.

As far as I know, if you fix and there are exit fees, you will most likely have to pay for all 4 meters. I'm assuming the annex has it's own address. Normally, exit fees are per fuel so a normal house would pay 1 exit fee for gas and 1 for electricity, if yours count as 2 separate houses, it would be 2 lots of exit fees in total even if with same supplier.

It all depends on timing though. If the sale takes several months, you could potentially save a bit of money by fixing or changing suppliers, or both. If you manage to sell quickly, the savings will be smaller.

SavingsSearcher123

@Yorkie006 that is very helpful, thank you.

Yes, I do live at the property. One of the suppliers is Octopus so maybe it would be worth speaking to them about getting them to take over from British Gas for the annex part.  The annex is integral with the house and is part-occupied as part of the house rather than as an annex at the current time (the house and annex are under one title).

If I could guarantee purchasing a new property straight away it wouldn't be so much of an issue as I would just transfer one "set" straight to the new property but as the onward move is completely unknown at the moment I am trying to work out the cheapest option.  I would hope the house would sell relatively soon but, again, this is all unknown until an offer is received.  If greater savings can be made for fixing without an exit fee then perhaps this is the way to go and I should speak to Octopus about what to do with the other meters.