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Setting up bills for student house 23/24

Hello,

I've just finished 1st year and I'm moving out of student halls and into a student house for my 2nd year at uni with 4 other people in September. But I'm VERY confused about bills. Do I need to start setting them up now? My landlord/letting agent said we're welcome to shop around for the best deals and change suppliers but when I'm researching sometimes the quotes ask for current meter readings (which I don't have access to as haven't moved in yet).

The question is do I start setting up bills now or just wait until I move in, in September? Obviously the water company is the one for my area (so I can set that up when I move in?) but I also need to pay gas + electricity, and broadband. Do I set up broadband when I move in?

Also are the student bills packages worth it? Or should we just sort the bills ourselves? The rent for the house is quite expensive anyway so I don't want to spending loads on bills and if it just takes some time out of my week/month to submit meter readings etc I'd be willing to do that.

Also, the contract is only for 10 months so I don't particularly want to be paying for 12 month contracts!

Anyone who has set up bills for a student house before, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 1

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by TheHistoryNerd_

Hey there @TheHistoryNerd_ !
It is more often the case that if you sort your bills out yourself then it works out cheaper than the bills included option that lettings tend to offer. In order to set up those bills you have to take metre readings from the property so you'd probably have to be moved in before you can set any of that up. Your university should provide you with a council tax exemption certificate for you so if you get a letter through from the council about paying tax then you can counter that with your exemption certificate which you have to print off if they ask for it.

Start having a look at broadband packages because some only operate in certain areas depending on your postcode. For example, my postcode doesn't let me have BT Fibre because it's not the right sort of cable. I can only get BT Openreach because that's what the property came with and it's not strong enough to hold anything else. I didn't know what I had until I moved in because some housing agencies don't have this information on file due to me having to sort it out myself and broadband not being included. I had to wait until a couple of days before moving in to order my wifi box and sometimes they'll tell you they need to book an engineer in. If they book an engineer in to come and have a look at your property then there's a slight chance they might drill a small hole in your property to put the cable into. In some cases, you may need permission from your landlord for them to do this otherwise you might incur fees at the end of the year. In order to have an engineer come out to your property, you have to be in the property at the time because it's your booking, not the letting agent's. I wouldn't advise booking this in until you move in so that you're sure someone is there to let them in. Most student broadband contracts are 12 months unfortunately, some of them are even more than that. Make sure you check the terms and conditions because some of them even have cancellation fees to get out of your contract, but every one is different.

Hope this helped!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU