Get energy if you are moving home or business premises

Before you move into your new home or business premises, you may need to connect to gas or electricity.

If the property has an energy supply, you can follow these steps to find your energy supplier. 

If the property has a prepayment meter, read our prepayment meters consumer guidance.

Moving to a new home

You can choose a new tariff with the property’s existing supplier after you have moved in You can also switch to a new supplier.

Moving to a new rented property

Check your rental agreement or ask your landlord to find out who your supplier is, and who pays the energy bills for the property.

If you have to pay your energy bills, you can choose to switch your supplier and tariff for the property at any time.

If your landlord pays, they should:

• include the cost of the energy you use in your rent
• deal with the energy supplier directly
• pay for the energy supply to the property between tenancies

Check the Citizen’s Advice guidance about what your landlord can charge for your energy.

Before switching your supplier, you should check if:

• your rental agreement has a list of suppliers you can choose from, called a ‘default supplier clause’
• the list of suppliers in your rental agreement can be changed
• you need to tell your letting agent or landlord that you want to switch supplier
• your rental agreement has a notice and return clause, which means you need to switch the energy supply back when your tenancy ends

Moving your business to new premises

Before moving to new business premises, you should:

• check the terms and conditions of your existing business energy contract
• check if your current energy account is in credit or in debt
• check if energy costs are included in your tenancy agreement
• tell your old energy supplier that you are moving

You may need to choose and set up a new business energy contract with a supplier for your new premises. You should check if you can do this before you move into your new premises. If not, you can do it any time after moving.

You are responsible for any energy you use in the period before your new contract starts. If you use energy in this period, your supplier could put you onto a deemed rate contract. This means the rates you pay could go up and down.

Please be aware that some different protections apply for businesses and domestic energy consumers, for example when getting support from third party intermediaries (TPIs). 

Switching to a new business energy supplier

Most energy suppliers will not let you switch before the end of your contract. 

Follow these steps to find out when and how you can switch business energy suppliers.