The legal entity on my business energy bill is wrong

The legal entity on my business energy bill is wrong

It’s not uncommon for a business energy contract to run for anywhere between one and four years. During this time, if your circumstances change, you need to inform your supplier as soon as possible.

In the event that the legal entity of your business changes when you are locked into a business energy contract, then you should seek to inform your supplier of the change immediately.

As soon as the legal entity of a business changes, that business is no longer tied into their energy contract. At this point, you are met with a choice, either:

Stick with your current supplier under new contract terms Take out an entirely new deal with a new supplier. The type of legal entity that your business was, or is now, will determine how easy it is for your current supplier to change your contract. This is because some legal entities require very similar contract structures, whereas others will need to have entirely new terms drawn up.

In this instance, if you decide to change the structure of your contract, then your supplier will likely cancel your previous contract and set up a new one in line with your business’s new legal entity – similar to a change of tenancy.

If you are looking to switch to a new supplier and a new contract, then the past or current legal entity of your business will not impact on your ability to switch to a new supplier.

Please note: In some cases you will be subject to out of contract rates if any time elapses between your old and new contract.

Providing you have all of the relevant evidence to show a change in your legal entity, then setting up and informing your current supplier of a change in circumstance is pretty straightforward.

You should first write to your supplier informing them of the change of legal entity. As mentioned above, this will terminate your current contract with your supplier.

Your supplier should acknowledge your correspondence within 14-days. If this is not the case, then you should escalate your request to your supplier’s CEO, who will have an additional 14-days to respond.

If you still have not received acknowledgment of your request after 14-days then you should take your case to the Energy Ombudsman, who will independently investigate the situation and arrive at a ruling.

ENERGY OMBUDSMAN

Phone: 0330 440 1624

Email: enquiries@os-energy.org

Website: www.ombudsman-services.org/energy

Post: PO Box 966, Warrington, WA4 9DF

If you have decided to take the opportunity of changing your business’s legal entity to switch to a new contract, our business savings experts can help find an energy deal that’s right for you.