New house, no bills yet

franny

Afternoon

In December last year I moved into a private rented house with 2 friends. We have yet to receive any utilities bills or even notification of who is supplying us. Now sounds like luxury but worried that we're gonna be stung with a beast of a bill so want to get in there first and not have them estimating.

I have done some research today and have found that we are supplied gas by NPower and electricity by Ecotricity.

I have the meter readings of when we moved in and can obviously get them now so what do people think the next step should be? Should I give the 2 readings and ask for the bill for the time that we have lived there?

I would also like to use quidco and change to a better tariff. I have looked at the comparison sites and E-On seem to do a good offer however Souther Electric offer a greener alternativ do they not?

Apologies for the length of the post, basically can I change suppliers before I have been billed by my current suppliers?

Thanks.

Fran

Garz

Sounds like they are just slow with the billing part. If you had a meter reader in lately then you would have had a bill not far after . If you can afford to do it now, flag it up, else you can always arrange a DD till you affordably catch up then cancel the DD.

denise40

I agree with Garz, you are just delaying the inevitable. Most utility companies have an agreement with energywatch to work within a billing code of 1 year so if they discover you have not paid a bill they can still charge you even if you change supplier. If you contact them they should be flexible regarding the direct debit which is usually the best option for paying, ask for a longer payment term for the debt than the 1 year offered.

SwanJon

December is about 3 months ago, and they bill you every 3 months, so you'll get one soon.
It is your responsibility to tell the supplier when you move in, and give them the reads.
I would get your name(s) on the bill before you try to switch as it makes things a lot smoother.

franny

Update: Npower want me to fax over a copy of my tenancy agreement, is this usual practice? Only then will they take a meter reading from me.

Ecotricity - Gave them the readings and the lady seemed happy as larry. Funny, already had our details and I was down as a Dr... didn't correct her.

Does anyone else deal with ecotricity? I have never heard of them but looking at their website they seem to be very green and I'm all for that.

mprice1988

franny wrote: »

Update: Npower want me to fax over a copy of my tenancy agreement, is this usual practice? Only then will they take a meter reading from me.

I work at Southern Electric and I can confirm this is a practice we use. Previous tenants may owe a balance at your property and the tenancy agreement is our way of starting a fresh account for you.

Steve1981

Get it sorted - I would advise, in my younger years I was in a similar situation. I heard nothing for a year and got hit with a £700 bill

I had contacted npower (i think it was) at the time to inform of moving in but as the months went by and nothing came in it just slipped my mind