The short answer
Energy bills follow the account. If your tenant has opened an account with the supplier in their own name, the energy used under it is theirs to pay, and so is anything still owed on it when they leave. If the account is in your name, or the rent includes the bills, the bills are yours, whoever uses the energy.
The gap is the account nobody opened. The energy rules do not require a new occupier to give their details or open an account when they move in, the government’s strategy of 28 October 2026 notes, and the energy keeps flowing either way. The law treats that supply as a contract of its own, set out below. Making landlords answer for it where nobody told the supplier about a move is what the government has proposed. It is not the law today.
What the law says today
- A contract with the supplier. Whoever agrees a contract with a supplier is its customer and pays for the energy supplied under it. Ofgem’s guidance tells a tenant who pays the bills that they can switch supplier or tariff at any time, though the agreement may ask them to tell you first, or to switch the supply back when the tenancy ends (a notice and return clause)
- Electricity with no contract. Where electricity is supplied to premises with no contract, the supplier is deemed to have contracted with the occupier, or the owner if the premises are unoccupied, from the time the supply began (Electricity Act 1989, Schedule 6, paragraph 3(1))
- Gas with no contract. Where gas is supplied with no contract, the supplier is deemed to have contracted with the consumer it supplies, from the time the supply began (Gas Act 1986, Schedule 2B, paragraph 8(1))
- Charging your tenant for a utility. In England the Tenant Fees Act 2019 allows a payment for electricity, gas or other fuel, water or sewerage only if the tenancy agreement requires it (Schedule 1, paragraph 9)
Each Act was read on legislation.gov.uk on 5 November 2026. At a move, Ofgem describes the deemed contract as an account in the name of "the occupier", kept until the new customer contacts the supplier and is named on it (Ofgem, "Proposed moving home process guidance", 28 October 2026).
Bills included in the rent
On an all-inclusive let the accounts stay in your name and the bills are yours. Ofgem’s guidance says a landlord who pays should include the cost of the energy in the rent, deal with the supplier directly and pay for the supply to the property between tenancies (Ofgem, "Switch your home energy supplier", read 5 November 2026). Say in the tenancy agreement which utilities the rent covers, so nobody argues later about what was included.
If you resell gas or electricity to your tenant, for example by charging for what a sub-meter shows, Ofgem’s maximum resale price rule applies: since 1 January 2003 the most it can be resold for is the price the reseller paid, standing charges included (Ofgem guidance on the maximum resale price, published 13 October 2005, read 5 November 2026).
Between tenancies
For electricity, the deemed contract falls to the owner while the premises are unoccupied, so the law makes you the customer for electricity supplied to an empty home with no contract. Read every meter on the day the tenant leaves and give each supplier the date and the readings, so the empty period starts from your readings rather than an estimate.
The services that take the accounts over between tenancies are compared on the void utility management page linked at the end. Council tax on an empty home is a separate question, answered in the council tax guide.
When a tenant moves in
- Read the gas, electricity and water meters on the day, with a dated photo of each
- Give your tenant the supplier names and where the meters are, and say in the agreement who pays each utility
- Where your tenant pays, tell each supplier who moved in, on what date, and the readings, and ask your tenant to open their own account from that day
- Where you pay, give the supplier the readings and say you remain the customer
- Tell the council who moved in, for council tax
When a tenant moves out
- Ask for your tenant’s final readings on their last day, and take your own when you get the keys back
- Tell each supplier the date and the final readings, with the forwarding address if your tenant gave you one, so their final bill reaches them
- If the home will stand empty, ask for each account to be in your name from that date
- Keep the readings and photos with the property. They settle a disputed final bill, and the next tenant’s first one
The proposal: a duty to tell suppliers
On 28 October 2026 the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Ofgem published "Energy debt circuit breaker: a strategy for domestic energy debt", a policy paper for England, Scotland and Wales. In it the government says it will legislate to place a new obligation on landlords to give their supplier timely and accurate information when tenants move into or out of a property.
Where neither the tenant nor the landlord has given that information, the strategy says landlords may become liable for the energy charges at the property. Ofgem’s consultation of the same day describes it as joint and several liability for landlords, unless exempt, and compares it with the arrangement that already exists for water in Wales.
It is a proposal, not law. There is no Bill. The strategy says the government will take the powers when parliamentary time allows, and then work through the practical details with landlord and letting agent groups, suppliers, consumer groups and charities. It will also consider different liability arrangements for social housing and look at shorter-term interim measures. What the duty would ask for, by when, and who would be exempt has not been published.
Ofgem’s own part is a consultation on guidance for suppliers, open until 9 December 2026. Where a customer has left and no new account has been set up, a supplier could switch a smart meter to pay as you go remotely, with a minimum two-week grace period before the new occupier has to set up an account. Suppliers would not have to follow it, and it puts no duty on landlords: Ofgem says it has no power to require landlords to tell suppliers about a change of tenancy. Landlords are among those invited to respond.
The same strategy plans a right for a tenant who pays the energy bills to get a smart meter without the landlord’s consent, with statutory guidance for the cases where a landlord has a legitimate reason to know about it or to refuse. That also waits for parliamentary time.
How LetCompliance helps at each change of tenant
- Utilities. On the property’s Tenancy tab, record electricity, gas, water, broadband and council tax, each with the supplier and who pays: the tenant, you, or shared. The account number and your notes stay private
- The move-in pack. The email to your tenant lists each supplier and who pays, beside the certificates and the agreement, so a new tenant knows who to call on the first day
- Letters to the council and suppliers. After the move-in pack, or from New tenant moving in? Tell the council and suppliers under Utilities, LetCompliance prepares one letter to the council and one to each electricity, gas and water supplier on record: who moved in, on what date, who is responsible for the account from then, and the meter readings. End tenancy offers the same letters with the final readings when a tenant leaves
- Readings from your tenant. Your tenant can send gas, electricity and water readings from the Meter readings tab of their portal, and Ask on the Tenants page requests one by email. The letters start from the newest readings on record, from the portal or an inventory
You copy each letter, or open it as a draft in your own email. LetCompliance sends nothing to a supplier or the council, does not switch suppliers and does not pay void bills, and a reading typed into a letter goes into that letter only. In an agency workspace the letters are written and signed as the letting agent. Utilities, the move-in pack and the letters are on every plan, the free one included; inventories come with the 3-day trial and every paid plan.
