Ms K. bought her electricity and gas from two different suppliers. In November 2014, she moved out of her place and informed her gas supplier but failed to inform her electricity supplier, too. When she moved out, the system contract and supply contract for gas were ended as agreed, in November 2014, and she received final bills, but her electricity contracts remained in place. Ms K. was surprised when she received final electricity bills several months later, in March, for a period including February 2015. She contacted our dispute settlement service with this bill. We contacted the system operator and supplier and found out that a new tenant had moved into Ms K.’s old flat in March 2015. This prompted them to end their contracts with Ms K. and to issue the corresponding final bills. The dispute settlement service had to inform Ms K. that the final bills were in order.
How to avoid this situation: if you are about to move out, it is best to terminate your energy supply and network contracts for electricity and gas in good time - say one month in advance. You must do this to ensure that your contracts actually end and that you only have to pay for the energy you have consumed yourself. Also, it cannot hurt to read your meters when you move out and send the readings to your network operator.
