How to set up electricity, gas, water and internet in NL

Setting up a home is four different jobs that people treat as one. Electricity and gas come from a supplier you choose, over a network run by an operator you cannot choose. Collective heat does not work like that at all, and if the building is on district or block heating your route runs through the heat provider or the landlord. Drinking water is not a free-choice market either: the company is fixed by the address, and it may not be the one you had before. Fixed internet depends on what physically reaches the building, so the question is which services can be delivered to your address rather than which company advertises best. Start by checking what your rent or purchase already covers, because the most expensive mistake here is a second contract for something you were already paying for.

Have the address with its postcode, the key or completion date, and the tenancy or purchase paperwork including any service-cost breakdown. Find out from the landlord, the agent or the previous occupant whether the home has a gas connection, whether heat comes from a collective system, and whether any internet equipment is already installed. If you are keeping an existing energy contract, have those details too. You will need bank details for a SEPA direct debit with most providers, and an address registration for some.

The right route depends on how the building is supplied, not on which company you prefer. Work out which of these describes your home before you order anything, because two of them mean you should not start an energy contract at all.

• Its own electricity and gas connection

  The usual case for a house or an older flat. You choose a licensed energy supplier for electricity and gas, either keeping the contract you already have or starting a new one for the address. The network operator that owns the cables and pipes is set by location and is not part of that choice.

• District heating or block heating for warmth

  Heat arrives from a district network or from one collective installation in the building. Supplier choice does not work the way it does for electricity and gas, so check with the heat provider or the landlord instead of trying to switch. You may still choose your own electricity supplier.

• All-electric, with no gas connection

  An increasing number of homes have no gas connection at all and run heating and cooking on electricity. Arrange electricity only. Ordering gas for an address with no gas connection creates a contract that cannot be supplied and a correction to unpick later.

• Services already covered by the rent or service costs

  Some tenancies, and most rooms and short-stay arrangements, include one or more services in the rent or in an advance for service costs. Read the contract and the service-cost breakdown before you order anything, because signing your own contract for a service the landlord already supplies means paying twice.

1. 1

   Check what the home already includes and what connections it has

   Before you order anything, read the tenancy or purchase handover information and work out which services you are actually responsible for. Establish four things: whether electricity, gas, collective heat and water are billed to you or included in the rent or service costs, whether the home has a gas connection at all, whether heat comes from a collective system, and whether any internet connection or equipment is already in place. In a room, a short-stay let or a serviced flat, several of these are often the landlord's.

   Do this: List each of the four services against who supplies it, and confirm anything the paperwork leaves unclear with the landlord or agent in writing.

   Documents needed

   • The tenancy or purchase agreement and its annexes
   • Any service-cost breakdown or advance-payment schedule
   • The handover or inspection report

   Processing time

   Before the key date if you can, so that anything you do have to arrange is already moving by the time you get in.

   Common mistake: Do not start a contract for a service the landlord already supplies. Unpicking a duplicate supply contract after it has started is harder than asking one question before it does.

   Official source

   Government.nl · The contract that supplies your home with electricity
2. 2

   Choose and start electricity and gas supply, if you need them

   Two different companies are involved and the distinction decides everything that follows. You choose the energy supplier, which sells you electricity and gas and bills you for them, and suppliers to households have to hold a licence from the regulator. You do not choose the network operator, which owns the cables and pipes at your address and is determined by where the home is. Contracts come as fixed, variable and dynamic: a fixed contract holds the rate for an agreed term, a variable one is adjusted by the supplier during the contract, and a dynamic one follows market prices as they move. Which suits you depends on how much variation in a monthly bill you can absorb, not on which is cheapest on the day you look. If you already have an energy contract and want to keep it, use your supplier's moving process for the new address instead of starting a second one.

   Do this: Decide whether you are bringing an existing contract or starting a new one, then arrange supply for the address with a licensed supplier and note the start date.

   Documents needed

   • The address and its postcode
   • The contract start date you need
   • Your existing energy contract details, if you are keeping it
   • Bank details for a SEPA direct debit

   Cost

   An energy contract has a usage charge and a fixed charge, with the network operator's charge alongside them. Take the amounts from the supplier's own offer for your address.

   Processing time

   As soon as the address and the key date are confirmed, so supply starts on the day you take the home over. If you are taking an existing contract with you, tell your current supplier as soon as you can and no later than 2 weeks before the move.

   Common mistake: A power cut or a gas leak is the network operator's responsibility, not the supplier's. Reporting an outage to the company that sells you the energy delays the people who can actually restore it.

   Official source

   ACM ConsuWijzer · What to compare when you choose an energy supplier
3. 3

   Follow the correct route for district heating, block heating or an all-electric home

   If the building is served by district heating or by one collective boiler for several homes, heat does not come from a supplier you picked and you generally cannot change it the way you would change an electricity supplier. The connection belongs to the building, and the arrangement runs through the heat provider or through the landlord or owners' association. Your route is to find out who supplies the heat and on what terms, not to go shopping. If the home is all-electric and has no gas connection, there is no gas to arrange: order electricity only. In both cases you can usually still choose your own electricity supplier, so do that part through the previous step.

   Do this: Confirm how the home is heated, then contact the heat provider or the landlord for a collective system, and skip gas entirely where there is no gas connection.

   Documents needed

   • The tenancy or purchase agreement and any heat-supply annex
   • Service-cost documents showing a heat charge, where there is one
   • The landlord's or owners' association contact details

   Cost

   Charges for collective heat are set out by the heat provider or passed through the service costs, so the terms you are on come from that arrangement rather than from an offer you compare.

   Processing time

   At the same time as the electricity decision, because finding out which of the three cases you are in is what tells you whether to arrange gas.

   Common mistake: Do not order a gas contract for an address with no gas connection. The supply cannot be delivered, and the contract has to be corrected afterwards.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · Whether you can choose a supplier with block or district heating
4. 4

   Register with the drinking-water company for your address

   Drinking water is not a market you shop in. One company supplies the area your home is in, so the company is decided by the address rather than by you, and it may well be a different one from the company at your old address. What you have to do is tell them you have moved: register the new address in your name from the date you take the home over, and close the registration at the old address so the final bill stops at the right day. Where the company asks for a meter reading, give the reading for the address you are leaving and the one you are arriving at. If the two addresses are served by different companies, both the closing and the opening have to be done, each with its own company.

   Do this: Find the drinking-water company that serves the new postcode, register the address from your key date, and close the old registration with whichever company served it.

   Documents needed

   • The new address and the date you take it over
   • The old address and the date you leave it
   • The water meter reading at each address, where there is an accessible meter
   • Bank details for a SEPA direct debit

   Cost

   The water company bills for the address, normally as a periodic advance settled against actual use, at the rates it publishes itself.

   Processing time

   From the day you receive the keys. Registering late leaves a gap in whose name the supply stands, which the closing bill then has to resolve.

   Common mistake: Leaving the old address registered is the common and costly error here: the supply keeps running against your name after someone else has moved in.

   Official source

   Rijksoverheid · Reporting a move to the drinking-water company
5. 5

   Check fixed-internet availability and order for the address

   Fixed internet is decided by the building before it is decided by you. What can be delivered depends on the address, on the infrastructure that physically reaches it, and on which providers choose to sell over that infrastructure. So the first move is an availability check on the exact address and postcode, not a comparison of advertised packages. Once you know what can actually be delivered there, compare the things that differ between the real options: the speed, the length of the contract and what happens at the end of it, the total price including any one-off connection or activation charge and what the price becomes after an introductory period, and when the service can start. If equipment is already installed in the home, find out what it is before ordering, because it may serve the connection you are about to buy.

   Do this: Run an address and postcode availability check, compare only the options that can be delivered there, and order with the start date you need.

   Documents needed

   • The exact address with postcode and any flat or house-letter suffix
   • The date from which you need the connection
   • Details of any equipment already installed in the home
   • Bank details for a SEPA direct debit

   Cost

   A fixed-internet contract normally separates the recurring charge from a one-off connection or activation charge, and an introductory price can change part way through the term.

   Processing time

   Order this first among the services. It is the one that commonly needs an engineer visit, and the appointment, rather than the order, is what sets how long you wait.

   Common mistake: An advertised speed is not a promise for your address. Treat the availability check for the specific address as the answer, because what reaches the building sets the ceiling.

   Official source

   ACM ConsuWijzer · Whether you can choose any telecom provider you want
6. 6

   Record meter readings and keep move-in proof

   On the day you take the home over, read every meter you can reach: electricity, gas where there is a gas connection, and water. Photograph each one so the figure and the meter are visible in the same image, and do the same at the address you are leaving. These readings are what a first bill gets checked against, and they are the only evidence that settles a disagreement about what was used before you arrived. If your meter does not report its readings automatically, record the electricity and gas readings at the old and the new address on moving day and pass them to your energy supplier within 5 days of the move. A meter that reports automatically does that part for you. Keep the handover or inspection report with the photographs, and keep every registration confirmation together with the contract start date it names.

   Do this: Photograph and write down each accessible meter reading at both addresses on the handover date, send the electricity and gas readings to your supplier within 5 days unless the meter reports automatically, and file the confirmations.

   Documents needed

   • Dated photographs of the electricity, gas and water meters
   • The written readings with the date they were taken
   • The handover or inspection report
   • Confirmation of each registration and its start date

   Processing time

   Take the readings on the handover or key date itself, and send them within 5 days where the meter does not report automatically. A reading taken later no longer separates your use from the previous occupant's.

   Common mistake: Do not rely on memory or on a reading someone else reports for you. Without your own dated evidence, an opening bill is very hard to challenge.

   Official source

   ACM ConsuWijzer · Your energy contract when you move
7. 7

   Check the contracts, first bills and who handles each problem

   When the first invoices arrive, check them against what you agreed: the service start date, the meter readings you gave, the contract term and the charges. Then know where each kind of problem goes, because these are separate bodies and sending a problem to the wrong one only costs you time. A billing error, a contract term or a tariff question is for the supplier. A power failure, a gas leak or a problem with the connection itself is for the network operator. A supply or billing problem with water is for the drinking-water company. Anything covered by the rent or the service costs is for the landlord. A municipal sewerage charge comes from the municipality, and the treatment levy comes from the water authority: both are public charges and neither is a water company bill. Where you agreed a contract at a distance or away from business premises, consumer law gives you 14 days in which you can withdraw, and the regulator names supply contracts for electricity, gas and heat, and for water, among those this covers. That is a specific legal route for a contract that meets its conditions, not a general right to cancel anything you regret.

   Do this: Check each first invoice against your start date and readings, and raise anything wrong in writing with the body that is actually responsible for it.

   Documents needed

   • The first invoice for each service
   • Your contract confirmations and start dates
   • The meter readings and photographs from the handover date
   • Any service-cost statement from the landlord

   Processing time

   As each first invoice arrives, while the readings and the handover evidence are still easy to put your hand on.

   Common mistake: The 14-day cooling-off period applies only to a contract that meets its conditions, and it is not an open right to cancel. Check the conditions on the regulator's page before relying on it.

   Official source

   ACM ConsuWijzer · The cooling-off period on a contract you did not sign in a shop

• The full address with postcode, and the house or flat number as the provider writes it
• The key handover or completion date
• The tenancy or purchase agreement, with any service-cost breakdown
• Your details for any energy contract you are bringing with you
• Bank details for a SEPA direct debit
• Meter readings and photographs from the old address and the new one
• The handover or inspection report, where you were given one

• An energy bill has a usage part and a fixed part, and the network charge set by the operator sits alongside what the supplier charges. Compare the whole bill rather than a headline rate, and take the figures from the supplier's own offer.
• Drinking water is billed by the water company for your address, usually as a periodic advance settled against actual use. The company publishes its own rates, so read them there rather than from a summary.
• Fixed internet usually separates a monthly charge from a one-off connection or activation charge, and a promotional period can end part way through the contract term. Check what the price becomes after any introductory period.
• Municipal sewerage charges and the water authority's treatment levy are public charges, not part of the water company's supply bill. They arrive from the municipality and the water authority instead.

Start as soon as the moving date is fixed. Tell your current energy supplier you are moving as soon as you can, and no later than 2 weeks before the move. Register with the drinking-water company for the new address from the day you get the keys, and close the old registration so the final bill is correct. Order fixed internet earliest of all: it is the one service that often needs an engineer appointment, and the wait for that appointment, rather than the paperwork, is what leaves people without a connection in a new home.

Requirements depend on your situation. Check the latest requirements with the relevant authority.

• Signing an energy or internet contract before reading what the rent or service costs already cover, and paying twice for the same supply.
• Trying to choose a heat supplier for a home on district or block heating, where that choice does not work the way it does for electricity and gas.
• Ordering gas for an all-electric address that has no gas connection.
• Assuming the drinking-water company can be chosen or kept, when it is set by the address and may change when you move.
• Confusing the energy supplier with the network operator, and reporting a power failure to the company that only sells the energy.
• Leaving the old address registered, so a final bill keeps running against your name after someone else has moved in.
• Moving in without recording the meter readings, which leaves nothing to challenge an opening bill with.
• Treating a municipal sewerage charge or a water authority levy as a mistake by the water company.

• Save each confirmation with its contract start date, customer number and the meter readings you gave.
• Keep the moving-day photographs of the meters until the first full bill has been checked against them.
• Check the first invoice for each service against the start date and the readings, and query it in writing while the evidence is fresh.
• Note which body to contact for which problem, so a power failure goes to the network operator and a billing error goes to the supplier.
• If you have not already done it, change your address with the municipality, because that registration is separate from any utility contract.