Forum spotlight: Setting up utilities

Our members-only forum is the ideal place to share experiences with other landlords and seek advice.

In our forum spotlight this month, we look at a recent question a landlord posted on our forum in relation to a new flat they are planning to let out. They wanted to know whether to leave the future tenants of the property to choose which utilities providers they want to go with, or to sort this out before they moved in.

The situation

Our member is a first time landlord, and she is preparing to rent out a flat with a buy-to-let mortgage, which she was about to complete on.  

The landlord was looking for some advice in relation to setting up the gas, electricity, council tax and water accounts at the property.

She explained that the property will be vacant for two weeks while she finishes decorating it, and wanted to know whether she should set up the various utilities accounts and transfer these to the new tenants, or leave this all to her new tenants to sort out for themselves so they can choose which providers they’d like. She took to our forum to ask for the opinions of other landlords there.

The responses on our forum

The first forum user to respond to this landlord's question explained that as soon as the landlord owns the property, they are liable for all these things listed above.

This user suggested the landlord sets the utilities accounts up, with meter readings (photos) and emails /writes letters to the utilities companies and council at change of tenancy. The tenant could still change the supplier or meter type if they wanted to further down the line.

Another landlord on the forum agreed with this and suggested that our new landlord also signs up to an NRLA training course before they get started.

A good place to start would be the NRLA’s Landlords Fundamentals eClassroom course, also available as an eLearning option.

The final person to post said they tend to put the energy accounts for their rental properties in their own name until new tenants sign up.

Then, they ask the tenants to call the utility companies with accurate meter readings and to request the company to register the account in their name.

This landlord also emails TV licensing to ensure they have the names of the new occupants at the rental property and do the same when it comes to water and council tax.