Moving Home: Setting Up and Closing Energy Accounts

Moving home does not create a gap in your energy supply, but it does create a new contract whether you ask for one or not. When you move in, whoever supplied energy to the previous owners automatically becomes your supplier, and you are on what is called a deemed contract until you choose something else¹. The same rule applies in reverse when you leave: your existing account is either transferred to the new address, if the supplier offers that, or closed with a final bill¹.

The practical steps are short. Give your supplier at least 48 hours' notice before you move out, so it has time to act¹. Take a meter reading on the day you move in and give it to the supplier, so the previous occupier's usage is not billed to you¹. If you are moving into a home with a prepayment meter, speak to the supplier before topping up, because money paid onto a meter still registered to someone else may cover their energy rather than yours¹.

Around eight million people in the UK have a prepayment energy meter, according to Ofgem figures cited by Uswitch, so a meter of that kind is a realistic thing to inherit². Prepayment tariffs sit under the same price cap as standard variable credit tariffs, and the cap levels for July to September 2026 vary by region and by payment method².

What happens to your energy account when you move house

The account you leave behind has two possible endings. Your supplier can transfer it to your new house if it offers that service, or it can close the account and issue a final bill¹. Either way, the supplier needs time, which is why the 48 hour notice figure exists. Notice is not a licence condition with a fixed statutory period; it is consumer guidance, and the terms you agreed with your supplier govern what happens if you give less.

If you pay a supplier directly for the electricity or gas you use at home, you can choose to switch to a different supplier or tariff at any time, and that right does not disappear because you are moving⁴. Once you have chosen, suppliers must switch your electricity or gas supply from your old supplier to your new supplier within 5 working days⁴. That deadline matters most in the gap between moving in and choosing a tariff, because a deemed contract is usually a standard variable rate rather than the cheapest thing on offer.

If your supplier goes out of business during all of this, no action is required. Ofgem moves customers automatically to a new supplier and makes sure the energy supply is not interrupted⁴. The same protection applies whether you are mid-move or settled. A credit balance does not follow automatically; that is a separate process handled through the final bills and credit refunds route.

To compare tariffs after a move you need your postcode, the name of your current supplier, the name of your current tariff, the amount you pay per unit in kilowatt hours, and the amount of energy you use each year⁴. Without the last two, any comparison is guesswork.

Taking over the supply at your new home

The first job at a new address is finding out who supplies it. The previous owner's supplier becomes yours automatically on move-in, so the answer is usually whoever the last occupier used¹. Once you know, speak to that supplier and give the initial meter reading from the day you moved in¹. That reading is the dividing line between the previous occupier's usage and yours, and it is the single most useful piece of evidence if a bill later looks wrong.

Some homes are not on a domestic contract at all. If you move into a property supplied through a business contract, Ofgem advises checking who holds the energy contract, how energy charges are calculated, how much residents typically pay, whether charges are metered or estimated, whether you can choose your supplier or tariff, and whether it is possible to switch to a domestic contract⁶. Residents on a landlord's business contract may not have the right to choose their own energy supplier or switch suppliers themselves⁶. Where a resident does hold their own contract with an energy supplier, they may be able to switch their business energy supplier⁷.

Communal and heat network homes sit outside the standard domestic framework too, and Ofgem publishes separate guidance for alternative homes⁷. The practical consequence is the same in every case: establish the contract type before assuming you can shop around.

Meter types you may inherit: credit, smart and prepayment

Three meter arrangements turn up in a home you have just bought or rented. A credit meter bills you after use. A smart meter records and reports consumption remotely. A prepayment meter requires payment in advance⁸. Prepayment itself comes in three main forms: key meters, smart card meters and smart prepayment meters².

Smart meters are available to almost everyone. Whether you are on a pre-payment plan or renting, you can benefit from a smart meter, according to the Welsh Government's energy advice⁹. Private renters can choose a smart meter if the energy bills are in their name or they prepay for energy, after checking the tenancy agreement and letting the landlord know¹⁰. If you rent your home, the advice is to discuss any changes with your landlord, as each meter may form part of your tenancy agreement¹¹.

Ofgem has been running home-move trials looking at proposals to switch existing smart meters into prepayment mode in situations of domestic customers moving homes¹². That is a live policy area rather than a settled rule, and it matters to anyone inheriting a smart meter, because the meter's mode can in principle be changed remotely.

Prepayment meters: how pay-as-you-go works

A prepayment meter lets you pay for electricity or gas in advance rather than after you have used it⁸. In Northern Ireland the same principle applies through a smart card, key or token, or sometimes coins, used to pay for gas or electricity as you use it¹³. The meter releases energy up to the value you have loaded, which makes budgeting predictable and removes the risk of a large quarterly bill arriving unannounced.

The trade-off is that the meter, not the supplier's billing system, is the gatekeeper. If the credit runs out and emergency credit is exhausted, supply stops. That is why the top-up network matters as much as the tariff. Electricity and gas meters can be topped up at recognised PayPoint or Payzone shops, or at the Post Office². Smart prepayment meters can also be topped up through a supplier's app or online account, and the Welsh Government's advice notes that prepayment customers and renters can benefit from a smart meter for exactly this reason⁹.

If you lose a key or card, contact your supplier to get a new one sent out, and in the meantime the supplier should be able to authorise a temporary card from your nearest PayPoint, PayZone or Post Office². Where the supplier has changed, the new supplier will give you information on how to get new key cards and tokens¹⁴. A replacement card or key can be sent by the supplier, which will also advise on what to do next¹.

What a prepayment tariff costs: standing charges and the price cap

Prepayment tariffs are subject to the price cap in the same way standard variable credit tariffs are². The cap does not set a single national price; it sets a maximum for standing charges and unit rates that varies by region and by how you pay. For gas, the benchmark maximum charges for 1 July to 30 September 2026 include a £101.33 standing charge and a £739.84 annual bill at 9,500 kWh in the Northern region, £99.53 and £745.22 in the South East, £99.16 and £761.19 in the Southern region, £99.68 and £757.41 in the Southern Western region, £102.62 and £760.20 in London, and £100.04 and £725.94 in the East Midlands³.

For electricity on prepayment, the standing charge was 57.19p per day in the July to September 2026 period². The Welsh Government's price cap explainer gives a typical annual figure of around £1,711 for a pre-payment meter for 1 January to 31 March 2026¹⁵. Older cap levels show how far the numbers move: for 1 April to 30 June 2024, the gas cap at 12,000 kWh per annum on prepayment was £783.60 in the Southern region and £767.79 in the Eastern region¹⁶.

The regional spread is not arbitrary. Standing charges recover the fixed cost of connecting a property and maintaining the network, and those costs differ by area. A household moving from one region to another can therefore see the same usage produce a different annual figure. Tariffs offered by energy suppliers may include a standard variable tariff, a renewable energy tariff, an electric vehicle tariff, a fixed price, and prepayment energy tariffs¹⁷.

All figures cover 1 July to 30 September 2026³.

Emergency credit and self-disconnection

Most prepayment meters have an emergency credit budget you can use, like an overdraft, but it is limited². The amount is set by the supplier and the meter type rather than by a single national figure, so a household moving into a prepayment property should establish the emergency credit limit and how it is repaid before relying on it. Debt can build on a prepayment meter if you have used some or all of your emergency credit, missed a standing charge payment, or are on a repayment plan².

Where a supplier installs a prepayment meter without permission, it must give you £30 credit once it has installed the meter or remotely switched your existing meter to prepayment mode⁵. That credit is a consumer protection rather than a discretionary gesture.

Self-disconnection is treated seriously in the rules. Authorised heat network suppliers are obliged to offer a reasonable amount of additional support credit in a timely manner where a prepayment consumer has self-disconnected or self-rationed in circumstances in which any occupant of the household is in a vulnerable situation¹⁹. Suppliers can provide temporary extra credit if needed, while councils can supply fuel vouchers². For households in debt, supplier schemes and grants can cover energy costs, paying off energy debt, and making energy-saving improvements to the home²⁰.

Debt on the meter: how repayments are taken and how to negotiate

A prepayment meter recovers debt through the meter itself. As well as paying the unit rate for the energy you use, you pay a little extra to go towards what you owe². That structure means the debt is cleared gradually and automatically, but it also means the meter absorbs part of every top-up before any energy is released.

The legal basis for recovering certain sums through a prepayment meter is set out in the Electricity (Prepayment Meter) Regulations 2006. A prepayment meter may be used to recover a sum owed to a gas or electricity supplier by a customer for gas supply, electricity supply, gas meter provision or electricity meter provision at premises previously owned or occupied by the customer, and for gas meter provision or gas supply at the premises where the meter is installed²². That is a narrow, defined power rather than a general right to load a new occupier with someone else's bill.

Two other mechanisms attach costs to a property rather than a person. Under the Green Deal, payments in instalments are made by the person liable to pay the energy bills, to the relevant energy supplier through the energy bills, recoverable as a debt, and held by the supplier as agent and trustee for the person who made the improvements²³. The charge stays on the energy meter, so if the person moves, the charge stays with the house, and the next occupant picks up the payments²⁴. A buyer or renter should therefore ask directly whether a Green Deal or similar charge sits on the meter.

Switching while in debt has limits. If you have a prepayment meter and you owe your supplier up to £500, you can still switch⁴. If a household using a credit meter has owed money to their supplier for more than 28 days, it cannot switch supplier until it has repaid what it owes²⁵. Where the debt is under 28 days old, any money owed to the old supplier should be added to the final bill⁴. Suppliers are expected to review current payments and debt repayments as circumstances change²⁰.

Switching from prepayment to a credit meter

Switching from an existing gas or electricity prepay meter to a smart credit meter is straightforward for customers who want it, according to Ofgem¹¹. The conditions are financial rather than technical. Uswitch reports that suppliers will likely require that your account is debt-free and, in some cases, that the account holder passes a credit check². Tenants on prepayment can move to paying by credit if they do not owe money to the energy supplier²⁶.

Renters face one extra step: you will need the landlord's permission to change the meter². That is because the meter may form part of the tenancy agreement¹¹. Where a supplier switches an existing supply meter to prepayment mode without the consumer's consent, it must ensure the consumer receives prepayment meter credit, unless that is technically infeasible or otherwise outside the supplier's control¹⁹.

The direction of travel matters for a household's independence. A credit meter with a smart meter attached gives a household the widest choice of tariffs and payment methods, and it removes the physical top-up trip. A prepayment meter keeps budgeting tight but narrows the tariff market and puts the supply at the mercy of a top-up. Neither arrangement changes the underlying dependence on a supplier and a network; both simply change how the relationship is administered.

Renters: what you can and cannot change

If you have to pay your energy bills, you can choose to switch your supplier or tariff at any time⁴. That right applies to tenants who pay the supplier directly, and it includes switching with a prepayment meter²⁶. You cannot switch energy supplier or tariff yourself if your landlord pays the energy supplier for you²⁶. In that situation your landlord might agree to switch, but does not have to²⁶.

Where a supplier wants to install a prepayment meter, it might install a smart meter in prepayment mode, or switch an existing smart meter to prepayment mode²⁶. That is a change to the meter rather than the tariff, and it is governed by the same vulnerability and suitability rules that apply to any involuntary installation.

For anyone in a rented home, the supplying rented homes and landlord meters page sets out the wider framework of tenant rights and landlord meters. The short version for a move is that the name on the account determines who can switch, and the tenancy agreement determines what can be done to the meter itself.

When a prepayment meter is not safe or practical

A supplier must not install a prepayment meter if there are any vulnerable people in the household⁵. The prohibited circumstances include terminal illness or severe health condition, dependence on a continuous energy supply for medical equipment, everyone in the household being 75 or over with no support, a child under 2, no one able to top up due to a physical or mental health condition, or temporary circumstances such as pregnancy or bereavement that make a prepayment meter unsafe or unsuitable⁵.

Before any involuntary installation, the supplier must visit the home to understand the circumstances and check whether a prepayment meter is safe and suitable for the household⁵. The supplier must not proceed with the installation or the switch unless it has made the necessary arrangements to ensure it would be safe and reasonably practicable for a relevant consumer to use a prepayment meter¹⁹.

If a meter cannot be moved, the supplier must replace it with a different type of meter⁸. That obligation matters for anyone who inherits a prepayment meter in a position that makes topping up impractical, for example a meter box that is inaccessible or a property where the occupant cannot physically reach it.

If a problem with a meter is not resolved, the complaint route is defined. Contact your energy supplier about late, incorrect or missing bills, back billing, being overcharged, a faulty meter, poor customer service, or refusing to refund credit from your account²⁸. If you suspect an issue with your smart meter, or your energy supplier identifies an issue, the supplier should promptly investigate it, resolve it themselves or with third parties, and keep the consumer informed²⁹. Beyond the supplier, the complaining about an energy supplier page covers the escalation path and the Energy Ombudsman.