What is a Letter of Authority (LOA)?

When your existing commercial energy contract is coming to an end, or if you are moving into new commercial premises, we’ll go out to tender on your behalf saving you time, giving you choice, and getting you a great deal.

But before we can speak to energy suppliers on your behalf, they want to know we have your permission. We do this sending them a letter of authority (LOA) signed by you.

Before we receive your LOA

The best place to start is by sending us a copy of your most recent commercial electricity bill, (along with half hourly data if you have an HH meter), your most recent gas bill (if your business uses gas), and your most recent water bill (if you spend more than £3,000 per year on water).

This gives us important information including the business name your current supplier knows you as and meter identification numbers. If your business has had a name change, or you’ve just moved into new premises, we’ll need to know that information too. We also need to know the name of the person authorised to sign contracts.

How to give us your LOA

Once we have a copy of your recent utility bill, we can draft a letter of authority for your signature. You’ll then receive this via an email from Docusign. Follow the link and sign electronically as soon as possible as we can’t do any more until this is complete. The instructions are simple and you can even sign on your smartphone.

What our LOA allows us to do

• Once signed, you are giving us authority to request historical meter information and negotiate a renewal price with your current supplier on your behalf. You are also allowing us to negotiate prices with alternative new suppliers.
• Whether you ultimately decide to keep or change suppliers, your authority allows us to deal with all the renewal or switch administration on your behalf, again saving you time and hassle. Going forward, if you ever have any issues with a supplier, such as billing, then we can often intervene on your behalf.
• In our LOA you’ll see our commitment to use your data responsibly and GDPR compliantly. We transparently detail how and why it’s going to be used. This protects you and gives us your authority to reach out to a wide range of suppliers on your behalf so you can have choice when it comes to your energy contracts. We’ll show you our findings, leaving the important final decision to you.
• Defining whether yours is a micro or non-micro business is important to suppliers as that determines how they’ll manage you contractually and legally as far as OFGEM regulation is concerned.

The really good news is our LOA is just a single page document that will only take a moment to read, sign and return. It lasts for 12 months, but you can withdraw your authority at any time by writing to us.

What our LOA does not allow us to do

Here’s the important bit – our letter of authority DOES NOT ALLOW UTILITRACK TO SIGN CONTRACTS ON YOUR BEHALF.

What to watch out for on other energy brokers LOAs

We often hear from business owners who have been signed up to long, expensive energy contracts on their behalf without their knowledge or full understanding.

This is where you need to watch out. Some less reputable energy brokers will include clauses allowing them to sign contracts on your behalf.

They will often do this up to a year before your current energy contract ends, meaning you’ll have no chance to shop around the market before renewal.

Other tricks include signing renewing letters of authority on your behalf or having no expiry date at all, so you could be under their control indefinitely.

The commercial energy sector doesn’t benefit from the same level of OFGEM oversight and regulation as the domestic energy market. This is why working with a reputable energy broker like Utilitrack could save you a fortune in the long term.

If you think you may have signed, or been signed up to, an LOA with these clauses with another energy broker, email them stating that you withdraw your authority for them to act for you with immediate effect. Then save a copy of that email.

Determining whether you are a Micro Business

In some cases a micro business will have extra protection compared to Small and Medium enterprises (SME) and Large businesses customers. Also, some suppliers only deal with non-micro or micro businesses, not both. It’s therefore important for us to take all reasonable steps to identify whether you are a micro business.  Our LOA includes a section to identify as per the OFGEM definitions whether your business is defined a micro business, and we will ask you these questions when completing your LOA.

A non-domestic consumer is defined as a micro business if they:

1. Employ fewer than 10 employees (or their full time equivalent) and have an annual turnover or balance sheet no greater than €2 million; or
2. Uses no more than 100,000 kWh of electricity per year: or
3. Uses no more than 293,000 kWh of gas per year.

Your business will qualify as a micro-business for both gas and electricity if it meets the employee and turnover or balance sheet criteria. If it doesn’t meet those criteria but your business uses no more than that the defined usage for either gas or electricity, it does qualify as a microbusiness for that fuel.  If it uses no more than the defined usage for both fuels, it qualifies as a microbusiness for both gas and electricity.

Our LOA will clearly inform the supplier you choose to place your business with, whether you are categorised as a micro or non-microbusiness.

What happens after we have your LOA

Once we have your LOA we’ll request data and information from your current supplier to help us prepare an invitation to tender with other suppliers. Once the tender results are in, we’ll let you know which supplier is offering the lowest priced contracts from our search and iron out all the quirks different suppliers like to use to confuse customers. This all allows you to make an informed decision while staying in control.

The key thing to remember with Utilitrack is that we do everything for you except make your decision. After all, no one knows your business better than you.

What now?

If you haven’t made contact with a Utilitrack energy broker yet, contact us and we’ll put you on the road to energy savings.

For your protection and assurance, Utilitrack Ltd is a registered signatory of the TPI (Third-Party Intermediary) Code of Practice with the Retail Energy Code.