Water/Gas/Electric/Council Tax etc?

[HungryHippos]

Moving into a new build property (well, get the keys anyway) on the 28th of this month. This is my first time owning a property.

Got most stuff sorted, but what do I do about Water/Gas/Electric/Council Tax?

Do I need to contact them before I move in? is it best to check what supplier the Developer has used and just continue with them for a bit? do I need to wait until after I get the keys so I can get the meters read and then contact them to confirm?

Regards the Council Tax, do I have to do anything proactive here or should I expect them to contact me about it?

Thanks!

 

[Makhaira]

Council tax you can notify them via a form from the council website. If you're living on your own, you'll get 25% discount.

Water/Gas/Electric - supply a meter reading read by you on the first day you get the keys. Protects you from any sneaky ***** that moved out trying to get you to pay the tail end of their bills (seen it happen).

Other than that, enjoy, and congratulations!

 

[Maccapacca]

Take your meter readings as soon as you land and email them to the developer as a record.

Remember you'll probably have a water meter as well which may be in the footpath.

 

[HangTime]

When we moved into a new build the gas and electric already had providers setup and the site manager went round with me to take readings, he then supplied a rounded up reading to the provider but obviously make sure you take your own record.

Obviously the provider you get 'out of the box' may not be giving you the best deal so after moving in jump on a comparison site and work out who is offering the best value for your usage.

Finally and this is very important with new builds find out if you are using a IGT (independent gas transporter) as some utility companies will charge you an extra fee for this so make sure you factor this in to any switch you do later.

 

[HungryHippos]

Cheers for the advice. Will check about the IGT as that sounds like the kind of thing one might expect the house builder to do to save money! I suspect it will be using an IGT but you never know... will find out shortly anyway.