Switch your energy provider and save money

The Tenants’ Voice is committed to making this website the best possible resource for tenants renting and living in the UK. That includes scouting for great deals and offers that optimise your budget and impact directly on your quality of life.

In light of that, we’re happy to announce that we’ve partnered with slothmove to bring you great deals on domestic utilities. You can now explore more options for sourcing the gas and electricity in your property, and potentially save hundreds of pounds off your annual energy bills.

What is slothmove?

Slothmove is a free comparison service for domestic utilities like gas and electricity. You can use the website to find and compare all available offers for your property and switch to a better plan. Slothmove will handle the switching process and you don’t pay anything.

When you switch your energy provider, you still keep the same pipes and cables but change where your gas and electricity comes from. This means that there won’t be any visits to your property or any kind of repairs or replacements needed.

Once slothmove finishes the procedure, you will be contacted by your new provider to confirm the switch and arrange a date for your new contract. You will then receive a pack of documents and information for your records.

By switching your energy provider or contract, you can update your tariffs and often pay less for the same amount of gas or electricity that you use. Some slothmove users are able to shed hundreds of pounds per year on their energy bill.

There are more recurring, subscription-type, services available like mobile phone, TV, broadband plans as well as insurance policies and even credit cards. Using slothmove makes it easy to shop around for the perfect plan and optimise your costs and save money.

Explore the links below to see all available offers for your home utilities and other subscriptions:

• Home insurance deals at slothmove
• Broadband and TV deals at slothmove
• Mobile phone deals at slothmove
• SIM only deals at slothmove

Can tenants switch their gas and electricity provider?

If you live in a rented property, then the answer to this question depends on the type of tenancy agreement you have.

Most of the privately renting tenants do have control over which energy supplier they use. You need to check your tenancy agreement and see if there is a clause about the bills in the property.

You can freely switch your energy provider if you have a direct contract with the utility provider. In this case, you don’t need your landlord’s approval to switch and can do it at any time and with any energy company that you choose.

If you’re not sure about having a contract there are several indicators which might suggest that you’re solely responsible for the utilities in your property.

• You have a standard Assured Shorthold Tenancy
• You pay your bills to the energy company and not to your landlord;
• Your bills are not included in your monthly rent;

Of course, The Tenants’ Voice recommends that you disclose the switch to your landlord and getting their consent anyway to maintain a healthy relationship. You should avoid actions that go against your landlord’s wishes, even if you have a right to them.

That said, your landlord should not unreasonably deny you to change your gas or electricity provider. If changing the energy provider is in your best interest and comes with no alterations to the gas or electrical network of the property, you should firmly defend your position.

On the other hand, if your landlord has a contract with the energy company that supplies the property, they are in full control. Since their name is on the contract, you must negotiate and convince them to do the switch for you.

You’re likely not in control of your energy supply if:

• You live in an HMO property – in most HMO properties, the utilities are handled by the landlord to prevent confrontation between individual tenants.
• You are a lodger in your landlord’s home
• You live in a housing association or council estate – most will centrally manage the energy supply of the entire building, therefore not allowing individual renters to choose their own provider.
• You live in a hostel, vacation home or property provided and managed by your employer

In the cases above, you need to gather your case and present your findings to your landlord, focusing on the benefits of switching to a new utility company.

Again, your landlord should not unreasonably ignore your requests, but it may be hard to negotiate if you don’t have any leverage.

Other monthly subscriptions like TV and broadband are usually entirely up to the tenant to choose and manage.

Conclusion

Bills are a big portion of your monthly living expenses. Whenever an opportunity is presented, you should switch to a better gas and electricity provider which is more suitable to your lifestyle and optimises your costs.

Energy companies are responsible to inform you of cheaper tariffs available under any of their brands. You will find this information on your energy bill.

However, gas and electricity providers are not responsible to let you know if another company has a better deal for you. Under the rules of competition, different energy providers regularly put out new offers and deals.

There are hundreds of pounds in potential savings by simply switching to a better tariff.

Slothmove takes that complicated process and allows you to find all available deals for your property and switch to the best one for your needs. It’s free and all it takes is a couple of clicks.