Your rights
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There are several things that establish your rights as an electricity consumer. They include the Consumer Guarantees Act, the Consumer Care Guidelines, and the terms and conditions you agreed to when you joined your electricity provider.
Consumer Guarantees Act
The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (CGA) guarantees you should receive an acceptable quality of electricity. The means:
- the supply of electricity must be as safe and reliable as a reasonable consumer would expect it to be; and
- the quality of electricity supplied must be such that it can be consistently used for things that a reasonable consumer would expect electricity for.
What's a reasonable consumer?
The CGA uses the term 'reasonable consumer' to reflect the quality of electricity you are guaranteed - but what does it mean?
The quality of supply expected by a reasonable consumer is affected by the location of the consumer, how severe and frequent issues with supply are, and the actions of the supplier.
For example, if you live in a rural area with limited and difficult to access electricity infrastructure a reasonable consumer will accept more outages than if you live in a city. Cities typically have more extensive infrastructure with better access for planned and reactive maintenance and the ability to divert supply. This often reduces the number and duration of outages. If these expectations are breached, you may be entitled to compensation under the CGA. UDL can consider the CGA, whether a provider’s obligations have been met and determine a fair and reasonable resolution.
Consumer Care Guidelines
The Electricity Authority regulates the electricity sector. Its Consumer Care Guidelines (CCG) establish standards electricity companies are expected follow.
The CCGs have been adopted by most major retailers but are not currently mandated. However, UDL treats them as good industry practice and we can consider whether they have been followed as part of a complaint.
The Electricity Authority has confirmed the CCG will become mandatory in January 2025.
Financial Hardship
The CCG confirm electricity retailers should take several steps to support customers if they are experiencing financial hardship.
If you aren’t on a payment plan and are unable or struggling to pay your electricity bill, your electricity retailer should work with you to find a suitable plan to help you pay. This
If you agree to a repayment or debt plan, your electricity retailer should monitor consumption and speak with you on major changes to make sure the plan is still appropriate and achievable. If you fall behind on a payment, they should contact you within five business days to try and review the payment plan, and to ask if you would like to be referred to reputable support and budgeting agencies.
Disconnection
The CCG sets out the process electricity retailers should follow before disconnecting a customer.
If you’re a not a pre-pay customer and you fail to pay an electricity bill, your electricity retailer should wait at least 28 days before issuing a disconnection notice. During this period, they should attempt to contact you at least three times to establish a payment plan. If you have given them an alternative contact, they should also be contacted.
If your balance remains unpaid and a payment plan is not arranged,
If your retailer completes a disconnection, it should not do so after midday on the day before a weekend or public holiday, at night, during a public holiday, during severe weather events, or during a civil emergency.
Note: These steps are for non-pre-pay customers who receive a monthly bill based on usage. Customers on payment plans or pre-paid plans have different processes under the CCG.
Medically Dependent Consumers
The CCG also confirm the standards electricity companies are expected to follow in relation to Medically Dependent Consumers (MDCs). MDCs are consumers who are medically dependent and rely on electricity to prevent serious harm to health.
You can confirm your MDC status by consulting a qualified health practitioner, such as your GP. They can provide a notice declaring you are medically dependent on electricity. You also need to craft an emergency plan for cases where you might lose access to electricity like an unplanned outage, then pass both the notice and plan to your retailer, who will register you in their system.
If you are an MDC, the CCG includes many protections to ensure your electricity supply is not cut off except in unplanned outages (for example during a storm).
In the case where an emergency causes a disconnection or outage, a retailer should, if time allows, contact any MDC to alert them to the outage and advise that they enact their emergency plan.
A property with a MDC should, when practicable, not be disconnected from the grid, including for non-payment of debt to the retailer.
For planned outages, the retailer should not vary from the initially planned time without alerting the MDC.
You can find the necessary application form, known as an HP form, on the Electricity Authority website here. Check with your retailer to make sure they don’t have their own form.
You can find a template for an emergency plan on the Electricity Retailers Association New Zealand website here.
Electricity retailer Terms and Conditions
When you sign up with your electricity retailer you agree to a contract which sets out your rights and what you can expect from the provider. This is typically the terms and conditions you agree to. They contain important information such as:
- how your electricity retailer will bill you
- the process for disconnection and reconnection
- how they handle electricity plan changes
- how you can protect your property from voltage fluctuations
- when your electricity retailer might need access to your property, and how often
- how they'll handle complaints.
Make sure you check your contract and read the terms and conditions before signing up with your electricity provider.
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Consumers can access their gas supply in two ways: reticulated gas, or liquid petroleum gas bottles (LPG). Reticulated gas is sometimes referred to as ‘mains gas’ or ‘piped gas’ and means the gas that is delivered via underground pipes directly to your home. LPG is bottled gas that gets connected to the house and replaced each time the bottle runs out.
While some of the protections for consumers are the same across both forms, they each present unique challenges that come with their own regulations. Make sure to read the below carefully to make sure the rules apply to the type of gas you use.
Consumer Guarantees Act
The Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA) guarantees an acceptable quality of reticulated gas supply. This means:
- the supply of electricity must be as safe and reliable as a reasonable consumer would expect it to be; and
- the quality of electricity supplied must be such that it can be consistently used for things that a reasonable consumer would expect electricity for.
It’s important to note that this section of the CGA doesn’t apply to LPG. These guarantees are designed for electricity and gas networks that separate the retail and distribution. LPG is covered more generally by the Act, such as section 8, which guarantees:
- that the goods are reasonably fit for any particular purpose that the consumer makes known, expressly or by implication, to the supplier as the purpose for which the goods are being acquired by the consumer; and
- that the goods are reasonably fit for any particular purpose for which the supplier represents that they are or will be fit.
What's a reasonable consumer?
The CGA uses the term 'reasonable consumer' to reflect the quality of electricity you are guaranteed - but what does it mean?
The quality of supply expected by a reasonable consumer is affected by the location of the consumer, how severe and frequent issues with supply are, and the actions of the supplier. For example, if you live in a rural area with limited access and far away from main power lines, a reasonable consumer will accept more outages than if you live in a city where there are alternative supply lines that can be relied on to manage the electricity supply. If these reasonable expectations are breached, you may be entitled to compensation under the CGA. UDL can consider whether the CGA may have been breached as part of its investigation in your complaint.
Gas Consumer Care Guidelines
The Gas Consumer Care Guidelines (GCCG) are a set of guidelines covering best practice for gas retailers. The GCCG are administered by the Gas Industry Company (GIC), which is the regulatory body in the gas industry. Membership with the GIC is voluntary for industry participants, and you can view the companies that have chosen to join here.
The GCCG are not mandated, but UDL does consider them good industry practice and may consider them when looking at a complaint.
The GCCG have clauses that apply to both reticulated gas and LPG.
Financial hardship
The GCCG confirm that gas providers should take several steps to support customers if they are experiencing financial hardship.
The provider should make efforts to get you on a payment plan if you are unable or struggling to pay your gas bill. This should include either providing advice on things like budgeting, appropriate support/social agencies, and energy efficiency, or referring you to suitable qualified independent advise.
If you agree to a repayment or debt plan and fall behind on payments, your provider should contact you to review the plan so that it better aligns with what you can reasonably afford.
Disconnection
The GCCG set out the process gas providers should follow before disconnecting a customer. This process was developed to match those in the electricity consumer care guidelines, so follows the same structure.
For reticulated gas customers on a monthly invoice cycle, your gas provider should wait at least 28 following a missed payment before starting the disconnection process. During this process, they should attempt to contact you at least 3 times to establish a payment plan. If you have given them an alternative contact, they should also be contacted.
If they’re unable to get a payment plan in place, they should make reasonable attempts to inform you of the pending disconnection. This should include one successful attempt in a traceable format (such as signed courier, or electronically confirmed read email).
They must also issue two disconnection notices, the first at least 7 days before the disconnection, and the other at least 24 hours before. These notices should contain information on options for payment plans for the unpaid invoice(s).
When a provider representative comes to the property to perform the disconnection, they should also make an effort to speak to you. They should inform you that you can still contact the provider to set up a payment plan and avoid the disconnection and should provide information on reputable support agencies that can help the consumer.
It’s important to note that an LPG bottle running out is not considered a disconnection. For LPG, disconnecting is when the provider repossesses the bottle from the property. The same notification process must be followed before disconnecting LPG from a property.
Terms and Conditions
When you sign up with a gas provider, you agree to a contract which sets out your rights and what you can expect from the provider. This is typically the terms and conditions you agree to.
They contain important information such as:
- how your gas provider will bill you
- the process for disconnection and reconnection
- how they handle gas plan changes
- how they handle complaints
- when your electricity provider might need access to your property, and how often.
Make sure you check your contract and read the terms and conditions before signing up with your electricity provider.
LPG Delivery
We occasionally hear cases where an LPG provider refuses to deliver to your address due to safety concerns. The provider will often have something in their terms and conditions which establishes their right to not deliver if they believe it to be unsafe.
When considering if a property is safe to deliver to, providers may refer to Gas NZ guidance on what a safe property for LPG delivery looks like. This can be viewed here. This guidance is considered good industry practice but is not enforced, and the provider will ultimately assess whether your property is safe for delivery.
Just because your property has previously received deliveries does not guarantee that it will continue.
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