Hello, I've scoured the forum in case this has already been covered but not found any discussion on it.

Does anyone know how possible/easy it is to change the electricity contract at a house into our name ourselves? (one name presumably). We've had the house nearly a year and still had no electricity bills and even though we've used about 1 kWh we would still expect standing charges. We've spoken to the solicitor several times but nothing seems to happen so we thought we should take matters into our own hands before the supply is cut off! For all we know it has by now but it was OK at Easter.

We don't know who supplies the property but it is likely to be EDP, it seems unlikely anyone would have switched it, all we know is the address obviously and the meter number.

What documentation would we need? If it comes to it we could probably get hold of the last bill the previous owner received if it would help with contract info but not sure how easy that would be.

Thanks in advance.

Don't know how you still have electricity, but when we completed on our property in Feb,the previous owner advised the supplier(EDP) that he had sold the property. It was then up to us to get the supply changed into our name.(Won't go into that but it was a PITA.)
I suggest you get down to the nearest(probably EDP.I think they would have a record of your past supplier) office pretty quick as possibly you will be having a largish bill to cover back charges.(Forget the solicitor,they won't give 2 hoots about your electric .)
If I remember correctly, we took everytihng we had that was official, passport, bank details, NIF.Also you will need to take the notary papers proving you are the new owners.

Our property lawyer set up our electricity contract. I've just looked back through my old emails, he's courtesy copied me into the one to EDP.

He sent them a copy of our property deed, the paperwork showing our NIF, our passport, some sort of electrical installation certificate (this is dated when the property was built), a form that showed we had given him POA to sort these things out & the IBAN for our Portuguese bank account for the Direct Debit.

If I was you I would take proof of ownership, NIF, passport & bank details into an EDP office and see what they say.

I'm also very surprised that you haven't been cut off - did you buy from someone so rich they could still be paying the bill without noticing?!?!

It sounds like Lou71 has not been in Portugal since Easter.

I suggest you to pop in to the nearest EDP office, provide your address and ask for CPE (your electricity point number)
With this number you can contract any company (I suggest endesa.pt), they will arrange everything for you.

Thanks for all your answers.

BillBullock, you're quite right, we haven't been there since Easter. Up until then we knew there had been no bills in the post box, but yesterday I logged into the bank account and saw that still no money had been taken.

Toots Sweet, Alice Caroline, Thanks for the lists of docs to take, we have all those - DiDAN, Your suggestion sounds the easiest, do you suggest Endesa because they are easy or are their tariffs good?

We need to phone the solicitor about something else so will chase it once more, after that we will try the DIY route, current performance suggests that the solicitor is incapable despite having all the info including IBAN & POA.

It seems unlikely that any bills have been paid by anyone else, the previous owner was elderly, unless there have been any dodgy dealings going on and someone else was paying it for some reason (there are a few cables strung up round the village connecting more than one house together) - but you would have thought they would have realised by now.

Be aware that they may want access to your property. They wanted to check our fuse box.

They also changed our meter for a Smart Meter. They are being rolled out across Portugal. It isn't "live" yet so we still send in our own readings each month.

I suggest Endesa because when I did a research I found them cheaper than EDP and had no any problem with them. The switch was smooth, I contracted everything online.
Some of my friends also contracted them with no issue.
The price will depend on power you need, so for us they are cheaper, but it was mentioned in other thread that for high power EDP may work better.
You may use my coding plano amigo 3303163533 to get a €1 off each monthly bill ))
I think it will be better option to begin with a new company and they have to arrange everything for you.
In my opinion if you still have no contract there's nothing to pay for, as you must receive a bill on your name to be obligated to pay.

PS If you have any previous electricity bill for your property (may be in the documents provided on purchase) you can find CPE in the bill.

Fuse box!!!!!!!! I hope they don't condemn it!!!!

Thanks for all the info and insight, we're low power too so Endesa might suit us then, also thanks very much for the plano amigo code, we hope they give you something off your bills too!

We'll see if we can get a bill from the previous owner because that sounds like an easy way to find the CPE - we know where she lives.

As far as I know they are not interested in checking the fuse box.
My friend had a contract with Endesa and when he decided to rent via AL and commission asked for electricity cert he called electrician and he had to make the new earth claiming the one was not suited current regs.
When we contracted Endesa they also never checked the fuse box, and I believe the box we have is there untouched from 70's

The electrician will have a gizmo to check your earthing rod; if it reads too much resistance, you need a new one.
I recommend having a working safety earth, and a GFI in your breaker box too.
Life and death sort of stuff.

In all seriousness it will need some work, I don't know if there even is an earth rod, there's no sign of any earth cabling. There's just an ancient looking 15A RCD, then the meter and then 2 trips, one for power one for lighting. It's just that it would be good to have the contract changed without fuss and worry about upgrading later, for the time being there will only be a cement mixer and a light in use!