Write to the energy supplier, do not disconnect at once

You do not disconnect the energy in a house that is still occupied because the contracting party has died. Someone who still lives there needs light and heat while the tenancy or the home is being sorted out. Giving notice in order to tidy the name on the account is then the wrong first step. The first step is a letter to the supplier: report the death, state the address, and ask for the balance on the date of death. Also ask in whose name the contract stands. That name can be the deceased, a housemate, or both. Do not put an end date on the contract in the file before the supplier has confirmed that notice can be given without a resident being left without supply.

The balance on the date of death is the reference date for the estate inventory. An advance that runs after that, or an annual settlement that comes later, is another item, with its own period. Ask the supplier to separate those two if the statement mixes them. A credit on the date of death can be a claim. An arrears on that date can be a debt. Only the statement says which of the two it is. Do not take an amount from an app that someone can still open, and do not log in to an account of the deceased to look it up yourself. The letter is the route. A relative's screenshot is at most a sign that you must ask.

In the letter stand the date of death, the address, and the question about the balance and the name on the contract. Do not ask to become a new customer, and do not offer to take the contract over, before it is clear who lives there and who is authorised. If someone still lives there, you write that, without making that person the contracting party in your own text. The supplier says what can be done with the contract. Ervazo keeps the letter and the reply. It does not send them. Put the reply in two places: the contract name with the home, and the balance on the date of death with the estate inventory or the debts, with the statement as the source. An empty item is better than an estimated instalment.

Do not cut off the supply while someone still lives in the home. Ask for the balance on the date of death and the name on the contract, and keep later instalments separate. The supplier's statement is the source. You do not open an account of the deceased for that purpose. This is not legal advice. Whether the contract may be ended or continued is confirmed by the supplier. Whether a balance on the date of death is a debt or a claim of the estate, you place beside that statement. The notary confirms that classification if the distribution shifts because of it and the papers do not speak for themselves.