Electricity Bills After a Death: A Practical UK Guide

What to do first with the electricity account

Start by finding a recent bill or email showing the supplier, account number and named account holder. If you cannot identify the company, use our guide to finding the electricity supplier before sending personal documents anywhere.

Contact the supplier's bereavement team or ordinary customer service channel. GOV.UK's Tell Us Once service informs government departments, not energy suppliers or other utility companies, so you must make this contact separately.

Give the customer's name, address and date of death, your contact details and your role. Explain whether someone will remain in the home, the tenancy will end or the property will stay empty.

• Find the latest bill, account number and supplier contact details if available.
• Take a clear photograph of every electricity meter register and its serial number.
• Record the date of the reading and the date responsibility for the property changes.
• Ask what evidence the supplier needs; a copy of the death certificate may be requested.
• Keep reference numbers, emails, readings and statements.

Who has to pay the electricity bill after a death?

First check whose name is on the account. Citizens Advice says that a person already named jointly on the energy account remains responsible for the bill. If the person who died was the only named account holder, a close relative is not personally responsible merely because they are related.

Charges for electricity used before the death are normally a debt of the estate. The executor or administrator deals with unpaid bills using estate money. Scotland uses different estate terminology and procedures from England and Wales, but the electricity debt still does not pass to a relative merely because of the relationship. If the estate may not have enough assets to meet its debts, get legal or specialist probate advice before paying creditors or distributing money.

Later electricity is separate. A person who remains in the property should arrange an account in their own name. Citizens Advice also says a person who inherits the property is responsible after the death, even if they are not living there. Otherwise give the supplier the exact handover or key-return date; do not assume the date of death closes the account.

Take a meter reading and separate the charges

A dated reading gives the supplier a defensible point from which to calculate the old account. Record all registers on an Economy 7 or other multi-rate meter, and include the meter serial number. If you are unsure which figures to use, follow our step-by-step electricity meter reading guide and keep the original photographs.

If a reading was not taken on the day of death, send the earliest reliable reading you have and say when it was taken. Do not invent an earlier figure. The supplier may estimate the missing period from previous usage, but the actual later reading still helps to constrain that estimate.

Worked example: the last actual bill used a reading of 12,310 kWh and the dated reading is 12,480 kWh, so the measured use is 170 kWh. At an illustrative 25p per kWh, that is £42.50. Eighteen days at a 55p standing charge adds £9.90, producing £52.40 before any account balance, discount, tax or adjustment. Use the real tariff and billing dates when checking the supplier's figure.

Decide whether to close or transfer the supply

If someone remains, ask the supplier to close the old account to the agreed reading and open or transfer the ongoing supply. Do not simply keep using the deceased customer's online login.

If the home will be sold or returned to a landlord, ask how the estate account will be managed until handover and send another dated reading when the keys transfer. Our moving-house electricity checklist explains the evidence to keep.

An empty home can still incur standing charges and use power for frost protection, alarms or ventilation. Before requesting disconnection, check insurance and maintenance needs. Closing an account is not necessarily the same as disconnecting the supply.

Direct Debits and prepayment meters

Tell the supplier how payments were made and ask what it wants you to do. Do not assume that cancelling a Direct Debit settles the account: a final bill may still be due, or the account may be in credit. Equally, do not use the deceased person's bank account unless you have the legal authority to administer it.

With a prepayment meter, contact the supplier before relying on the existing key, card or account. Supplier systems differ, and the old setup may be recovering debt that belongs to the previous account. British Gas, for example, says it creates a new account and issues a new card so a new account holder does not repay debt for which they are not responsible. Ask the actual supplier for its process.

Check the final bill, debt and any credit refund

Ask for a final statement showing the closing reading, dates, rates, standing charges, payments and balance. Compare it with your photographs and calculation. Our final energy bill guide explains the main checks, although its switching and moving deadlines may not apply in the same way to an estate account.

If money is owed, make sure the bill names the estate or correct liable person. Do not pay a sole account holder's pre-death debt from your own money merely because the supplier contacted you.

If the account is in credit, give the supplier the estate contact and ask how it will return the money. Ofgem advises people handling an account for someone who has died to check closed accounts for credit. Keep the final statement and refund confirmation; our energy account credit guide explains how to check the balance. If the supplier will not correct an error, use its formal complaint process.

Electricity accounts after a death in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has a separate electricity market, so contact the property's NI electricity supplier rather than relying on Great Britain processes or timescales. Give the supplier the reading, account details, estate contact and occupancy position, then ask for its bereavement requirements in writing.

The Utility Regulator says bereavement can make a customer eligible for free extra help through a supplier's Customer Care Register. A surviving resident can ask for support such as nominating a trusted person to help manage communications. NIE Networks maintains the wires and meters but does not issue household electricity bills; billing changes belong with the supplier.