How Do I Set Up Water, Gas and Electricity After Moving Into My First Home?
How to organise water, gas and electricity around settlement day when buying your first home — timing, what varies by state, and what to compare.
How do I set up water, gas, and electricity after moving into my first home?
There’s no single national process for this, because electricity, gas and water aren’t run the same way, and the rules differ by state and territory. In general, you contact an electricity retailer — and a gas retailer, if the home is connected to reticulated gas — before settlement, and ask them to start your account from the settlement date so supply carries over from the seller without a gap. Water usually works differently: the property typically stays physically connected, and it’s the billing account that changes hands, often as part of the settlement adjustment your conveyancer arranges. The exact rules for both differ depending on where you live, which is covered section by section below.
Settlement adjustment is the reconciliation your conveyancer calculates on settlement day: prepaid amounts like council rates and water charges are split between buyer and seller based on the exact date ownership changes, so neither side pays for a period they didn’t own the property. Utility connections follow a similar logic of timing, even though most electricity and gas retailers bill in arrears rather than in advance.
If you’re still working through your deposit and other upfront costs before you get to this stage, see our guide to how much deposit you need for a first home in Australia.
When should I organise the connections?
Utility connections sit alongside the other settlement-week tasks — see our guide to the stages of buying a house in Australia for how this fits into the wider sequence. As a rough shape:
| Timing | What to do | Who’s usually involved |
|---|---|---|
| After your offer is unconditional | Compare electricity and gas retailers | You |
| A week or two before settlement | Book connection to start on settlement day | You and the retailer |
| On settlement day | Final meter reads taken; billing splits then | Conveyancer and retailer |
| After you move in | Confirm supply is live; arrange water account transfer | You |
Most retailers need advance notice before they can guarantee a specific connection date, so it’s worth starting the comparison as soon as your purchase is unconditional rather than waiting for settlement week. If your settlement date moves — and settlements do sometimes shift — you can usually update the connection date with the retailer, but the sooner you tell them, the better.
What’s different between electricity and gas, and my water account?
Electricity and gas
Electricity and gas are supplied through retailers you generally choose yourself, separately from the physical network that actually delivers the power or gas to the property. Whether every state and territory gives residential customers a genuine choice of retailer, or defaults some customers to a single provider, is not the same everywhere: as at July 2026, the Australian Government’s own comparison service, Energy Made Easy, is only available to households in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT — in Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, check with your retailer or the relevant state or territory energy regulator about what’s on offer at your address. Some retailers charge a fee to establish a new connection, and some don’t. Ask for the connection date, any fee and any deposit in writing before you commit to a retailer.
Water
Water is the odd one out: in most cases the physical connection was never disconnected, because properties generally stay plumbed to mains water and sewerage between owners. What changes is who bills you, and that detail differs by state — the main population centres are generally served by a dedicated water retailer rather than the council, for example Sydney Water in NSW, Yarra Valley Water and Victoria’s other regional water corporations, Urban Utilities in Brisbane, SA Water, TasWater, Icon Water in the ACT, Water Corporation in WA and Power and Water in the NT — and it’s this authority, not your council rates notice, that bills you and coordinates the change of ownership with your conveyancer. Some regional council areas run their own local water service instead, so it’s worth confirming which applies at your address. In practice, it’s usually your conveyancer or solicitor — not you — who requests the final (“special”) meter reading from the water retailer as part of calculating the settlement adjustment. For more on how your conveyancer handles this alongside the rest of settlement, see our guide to what a conveyancer does.
What should I compare before choosing an electricity or gas retailer?
Retailers differ on price structure, contract length, any exit fees, and whether they bundle electricity and gas into one plan. None of these features is objectively “best” — it depends on how much energy your household uses and how you prefer to pay. Comparing a small number of offers side by side, using your own expected usage rather than a retailer’s example bill, is the most reliable way to see which suits your circumstances.
It’s also worth checking whether the seller is willing to leave their existing retailer in place for you to take over, versus starting a new account yourself. Taking over an existing plan can be quicker, but it means inheriting whatever rates and terms the seller signed up to rather than shopping around.
What happens if I don’t organise the connection in time?
If nobody arranges a new connection, supply doesn’t automatically continue for you: the previous owner’s account simply closes at settlement, and without a new account in place, the property can be left without power, gas or an active water account in your name until one is set up. This is a logistics problem, not a legal one — it doesn’t affect your ownership of the property, only your first few days of comfort. Building a few days’ buffer between confirming your settlement date and moving in gives retailers room to connect on time even if something is delayed.
For the other costs that can catch first home buyers by surprise around this stage, see our guide to the hidden costs of buying a home in Australia.
Who can confirm the exact steps for my purchase?
The specifics — which retailers service the address, whether water is billed separately, and how much notice each provider needs — are property- and state-specific, and your conveyancer or solicitor deals with this as a routine part of settlement. It’s worth raising utility connections with them early, alongside the other settlement adjustments, rather than leaving it until the week you move in. As at July 2026, none of this changes the underlying settlement process itself — only the retailers and authorities you’re dealing with vary by address.
