this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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Has anyone organised a utilities account transfer for a deceased estate?
Short story is I'm handling it for my grandparents, both live in the same house but one passed. The one that passed is the only name on the account.
I'm going to be switching providers anyway to the other g-parent, would it just be easier to let the new company handle the transfer instead of having to close the existing account? Also the current company never set up a concession for the eligible deceased owner, any ideas whether they'd be able to retroactively apply it now to ease the financial burden?
I'm not sure how this would work for water, but I used to work for like, 3 different elec/gas companies across Vic, NSW, SA, and WA.
Generally, you would need to provide a death certificate, and POA (power of attorney) or executor of the estate docs. Instead of doing all of that, you can contact a different company/provider, set up an account with them for g-parent and have someone/yourself as authorised (in case you need to help g-parent later on) - that will initiate a back-end request from preferred-company to old-company to request power xfer (how it used to work iirc may have changed) - anyway, after the cooling-off period, generally 10 business days, the xfer should be completed. You will receive a final invoice from old-company up to the date of xfer, this will need to be paid to old-company.
Regarding concession for account for deceased g-parent; if there are notes on their utility account (call notes the customer reps. can see on their end) where g-parent called and applied concession, and it wasn't applied/applied incorrect by old-company, then you can escalate and have someone backdate the concession (generally, however this is up to each company what their policies are). If g-parent didn't call to advise old-company they have a concession, then no, they will not backdate. Generally power companies have a policy that it is up to the concession holder to advise them of any changes, including calling to update the expiry of the concession. Even if it's a seniors card. But it is worth asking about.
Be polite, and the reps will generally go the extra mile for you. Ask for an escalation if the rep doesn't understand the request, and that will generally prompt them to ask for clarification from their senior/TL.
I hope this helps.
Hey thank you so much for your help and personal experience
First point (transferring) - this confirms my expectations and my experience with requesting a transfer. This sounds like the easiest way. I would expect to have to go the initial route if the current g-parent didn't live here which luckily they do
Second point (concession) - Thanks for this, I've had one company backdate it by a year before, I see what this one says. According to the DFFH, concessions can be backdated for 12 months or the concession start date - whichever is more recent. I'll give this a go before transferring retailers
I appreciate the detailed response, thank you!