Closing Utility Accounts After a Death¶

Utilities and consumer accounts continue to bill until they are told to stop. Unlike government departments — most of which the Tell Us Once service notifies in one step — every utility provider has to be contacted individually with proof of death. This is the largest piece of administrative housekeeping in the early weeks of bereavement, and the part where families most often lose track.

This guide covers the standard sequence: gas and electricity, water, broadband, mobile, TV licence, and the long tail of streaming and subscription services. It also covers the Settld service that handles most of these notifications in one go, and the cases where it makes sense to transfer an account into a surviving partner's name rather than close it outright.

If you can only do one thing today: Contact the gas and electricity supplier first. Continued energy charges accrue daily, and the supplier needs a meter reading on or close to the date of death to bill correctly. Most major suppliers have a dedicated bereavement team reachable on a separate phone number listed under "what to do when someone dies" on their website. Take a photograph of every meter in the property as soon as you can.

The order to deal with them¶

The right order is rough but consistent across most households:

Gas and electricity — daily standing charges and consumption charges accrue until notified; a date-of-death meter reading prevents the supplier billing the estate for the survivor's later usage.
Water — same logic, lower urgency because most water billing is fixed annual or six-monthly rather than usage-driven.
Council tax — handled separately under Council tax after a death.
Broadband and home phone — practical, because the property still needs working internet and phone for the executor's calls and post.
Mobile phone contracts — recurring monthly charges that accumulate quickly if not stopped.
TV licence — the licence can often be cancelled with a partial refund.
Streaming services and subscriptions — Netflix, Disney+, gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, software licences. Easy to overlook; most surface from bank statements.

A single phone call to a third-party service like Settld short-circuits most of this list for major UK providers; the rest still need direct contact.

What every utility provider needs¶

The standard documents and information are:

Proof of death — a copy of the death certificate or a Tell Us Once reference number. Some providers accept a brief letter from the funeral director where a death certificate is not yet available.
The account holder's full name and the account number from a recent bill or online account.
A meter reading taken on or close to the date of death (gas, electricity, and water meters; smart meters self-read).
The forwarding address for the final bill and any refund.
The bereavement claimant's name and contact details — usually the executor or the surviving partner.

A single phone call to the bereavement team is usually enough to open the case. The provider sends a closing or transfer pack by post, the executor returns it with the documents, and the final bill arrives 4 to 6 weeks later.

Gas and electricity¶

Energy supply is run on standing-charge-plus-usage tariffs, so an unread meter at the date of death leaves the supplier estimating consumption for what may be months of empty-property usage. A date-of-death meter reading prevents this, even if the meter is read again later.

For each supply (gas and electricity may be with the same supplier or different ones), contact the supplier's bereavement team:

Confirm the date of death and request a closing bill to that date.
Provide the date-of-death meter reading. If the meter is a smart meter, the supplier will read it remotely; ask them to confirm the reading they have on file.
State whether the supply will continue (someone is still living there) or terminate (the property is empty pending sale or transfer).
For continuing supply, transfer the account into the surviving resident's name. The supplier issues a final bill against the deceased's account and a fresh contract in the new name.
For terminated supply, ask whether the meter should be left with a credit or a debit balance and how the final settlement is paid. Refunds go to the executor on production of probate; balances owed are paid from the estate.

If the property is going to be empty for an extended period (a sale that takes 6 months to complete), do not disconnect the supply. Buildings insurance usually requires that gas and electricity remain connected and that the heating runs at a low setting through winter to prevent burst pipes. The fixed standing charges are a small fraction of the cost of an uninsured loss to the executor.

Water¶

Water is billed by the regional water company in England and Wales, by Scottish Water in Scotland, and by Northern Ireland Water in Northern Ireland. There is no choice of supplier in any UK region; the local company is the only option.

The process is simpler than energy. Phone the bereavement team, provide the deceased's name and account number, supply the date-of-death meter reading if the property is metered (most older properties are not), and request closure or transfer. Refunds for credit balances are paid to the estate on production of evidence of probate; debit balances are paid from the estate as ordinary unsecured creditors.

Water companies sometimes offer WaterSure or low-income tariffs to surviving residents on means-tested benefits; if the survivor's circumstances qualify, this is worth asking about during the closure call.

Broadband, home phone, and mobile¶

Broadband and home phone are usually contracted on 12 to 24-month fixed terms with early-termination fees. Mobile phone contracts are similar, often with a separate handset-finance component on top of the airtime tariff.

Most major UK providers waive early-termination fees on bereavement closures, on production of a death certificate, where the deceased was the contract holder and the survivor cannot or does not want to keep the contract. This is industry standard rather than a legal entitlement; ask explicitly if it is not offered. Where the survivor wants to keep the broadband or home phone, the contract can be transferred into their name without re-contracting and usually without losing any remaining promotional pricing.

For mobile phones, the SIM is normally cancelled and the number released. If the deceased's phone number was being used for two-factor authentication on accounts the executor needs to access — banking, email, gov.uk login — this becomes urgent: cancelling the SIM may lock the executor out of accounts they were trying to access. Where this matters, transfer the number to a new SIM in the executor's name before cancellation.

Equipment provided by the supplier (router, set-top box, mobile handset) is normally returned to the supplier at closure; pre-paid envelopes are sent on request. Failure to return equipment within the supplier's stated window (typically 30 days from closure) attracts a non-return charge of £30 to £150 depending on the device, billed to the executor as a debt of the estate.

TV licence¶

A TV licence does not transfer automatically to a surviving household member. The licence holder's executor or next of kin contacts TV Licensing on 0300 790 6113 (or via tvlicensing.co.uk) to do one of three things:

Cancel and claim a refund for any complete unused months of the licence, paid to the estate.
Transfer the licence into a surviving resident's name where someone is staying in the property and watching live TV or using BBC iPlayer.
Confirm a no-licence-needed declaration where no surviving resident watches live TV or iPlayer.

The licence is currently £174.50 per year for a colour licence (set by DCMS and reviewed annually); the refund is calculated pro-rata from the date of cancellation. A surviving resident over 75 receiving Pension Credit qualifies for a free licence on application; this should be applied for separately.

Streaming and subscription services¶

Streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, Apple TV+) and subscription services (online newspapers, fitness apps, software licences, dating sites) cancel on request to their customer service teams. Most provide a bereavement closure flow on their websites; some require an email with the death certificate attached.

The fastest way to find them is for the executor to work through 3 months of the deceased's bank and credit-card statements and list every recurring direct debit or card payment. A surprising number of households discover one or two subscription services no one had noticed, accumulating monthly charges of £5 to £30 each.

For services where the deceased was the account holder but a household member was the actual user (a family Netflix account, for instance), the simplest approach is to close the deceased's account and have the user re-subscribe in their own name.

The Settld service¶

Settld is a free service that notifies most major UK utility, telecom, banking, and subscription providers of a death in one go. The user enters the deceased's details and the accounts they want notified; Settld then contacts each provider, supplies proof of death, and tracks the response. The service is funded by participating providers, not by bereaved families.

Settld's coverage is good for the major utility and telecom providers, the largest UK banks and building societies, the main streaming services, and a growing list of insurers. Coverage is patchy at the long tail (small lenders, niche subscriptions, foreign providers); the service shows what it can and cannot reach before you submit. Settld does not replace probate — banks above their probate threshold still need a grant of probate before releasing funds — but it removes most of the repeated paperwork and phone calls.

The main alternative is Life Ledger, which uses a similar model with a different provider list. Either can be used in parallel with Tell Us Once (which separately handles state-side notifications).

Final bills and credit balances¶

Final bills from utility providers are debts of the estate and are paid out of estate funds in the statutory order of debts. They rank as ordinary unsecured creditors, which means they are paid after secured debts (mortgages) and funeral costs. Where the estate has insufficient funds, providers usually accept a partial payment or write off small balances.

Credit balances are payable to the estate. The executor should ask in writing for any credit to be transferred to the executor's account on production of a copy of probate (where required) or a small-estate declaration (where not). Some providers send refunds by cheque to the deceased's last address; redirecting the post (see Redirecting post after a death) catches these.

Scotland and Northern Ireland¶

Energy, telecoms, broadband, and TV-licence providers operate UK-wide on identical terms; the bereavement processes are the same. Water and council tax are jurisdiction-specific:

Scotland: Scottish Water handles all water and sewerage.
Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Water handles water and sewerage; council tax does not apply (rates are set by Land & Property Services).

The Settld service operates UK-wide.

What this guide doesn't cover¶

This guide covers consumer utility accounts. It does not cover business utilities (gas, electricity, water, broadband supplied to a business name, even where the business operated from the deceased's home) — these have separate bereavement and continuity-of-supply processes that depend on whether the business is being wound up, sold, or continued. It also does not cover insurance, banking, pension, or investment accounts; those are covered separately in their own guides.

If you're struggling, you don't have to do this alone. Samaritans (116 123, 24/7) | Cruse Bereavement Care (0808 808 1677) | Mind (0300 123 3393)

Next: Claiming life insurance after a death

Last verified: 29 April 2026 against published bereavement guidance from major UK utility, telecoms, and TV-licensing providers.