After finding and renting a place the next step would be changing the contracts for all the connected utilities. Let’s just hope that everything is connected since it’s much easier and quicker to get everything working.
For us it was changing the contract for water, electricity and broadband into our name.
Some of them are pretty easy and some will just take a bit longer or more follow ups, but you can get it done with almost no Spanish I would say.
If you are using the service of MovingToBarcelona then she will try and help you change all the contracts, but sometimes the companies just want to deal with you and not third parties.
Water – Sorea
So in our case I had to do change with Sorea, which seems straightforward since they have this lovely online form you could use:
https://www.sorea.cat/cambio-titular
Well that didn’t work at all because it gave me errors, so I called them and asked them for someone who could speak English, which they were able to.
They basically told me that the online form isn’t working due to technical issue and I should try using the Contact form, where you can also attach loads of documents.
So I did that and finally got what I wanted.
Here are some emails from them:
In order to change the name of the contract holder online (it is not necessary to be registered in our Virtual Office), you will need to enter in the main menu “Your Service” and select the option “My account” and go to “Contracts”, where you will find the icon “Change of contract holder”. In the following windows, you will need to take the contract you need to change, and enter the details of the person requesting the management and the new contract holder. In the window “Detalles del contrato” enter the new bank account details for direct debit payments of bills.You can attach the required documentation (max. 6 MB) or deliver it to our offices.
This was the one which didn’t work properly.
In reference to your inquiry, please be informed that if you are not able to order the change of the contract holder by the provided method, you can attach all the requested documents (max. 6 MB per message) with another message through this “Contact us” option and we are going to do it for you.
That was the response to my inquiry about the failing registration, basically telling me to send all the documents via the Contact form.
I send them this as a message (you have to fill out the —):
Titular y contrato
Tipo de documento
NIF
Número del documento
—
Número de contrato
—
Nuevo titular
Número del documento
—
Nombre
—
Código postal
—
Municipio
—
Email
—
Teléfono fijo
Teléfono móvil
Nombre de usuario
—
Idioma
English
Detalles del contrato
Número del documento
—
Nombre
—
Cuenta bancaria
—
Banco
—
Código BIC
—
Tipo de contrato
Doméstico
Tipo de vivienda
Industrial
Fecha de escritura
—
Motivo del cambio de titular
Cesión sin cambio de contador
Número de contador
—
Lectura del contador
—
Fecha de lectura
—
Fecha de visita para lectura
—
Hora visita lectura (hh:mm)
—
Then you need to add a bunch of documents, I think I added a copy of my NIE, my contract of the house, a photo of my account with IBAN and a photo of the meter reading.
With this everything worked fine and they did send me a mail with the contract to sign.
Electricity – Endesa
Changing the contract for the electricity was really easy to be fair and all done by phone in English. But I first contacted them via E-Mail and asked them how to do it:
To request the change of ownership , you must request it through one of the following channels:
– Through the customer service telephone number: (Depending on your marketer company)
Endesa Energia XXI: 800 760 909.
Endesa Energía: 937 061 510.
If you are in a foreign country, you can call us at :
Endesa Energia XXI: +34 937 061 509.
Endesa Energía: + 34 937 061 510
– Through the web:
By accessing to My Endesa´s user, in our page or registering in the case you do not have an user.
Then, you will have to choose a product: The system shows the hired supply points and the option to hire a new one. You must select the option \”I wish to contract at another supply point\” and follow the next steps.
Once the process is finished, a summary screen of the form that you just filled out will appear, with an order number to track the new contract.
You can know more about change of ownership in the following link:
https://www.endesaclientes.com/contracts-management/change-holder.
Obviously I tried it online but if you follow the link, they will tell you to just phone them.
It is really easy, just have all your information ready.
- Name, surname, Tax Identification No. (NIF or CIF if it is a company) and a contact telephone number.
- Point of supply address.
- Current account to set up the direct debit for your bills (20 digits).
- Copy of the property title deeds or rental agreement.
Broadband – XTA
That one was a bit annoying, since the owner of the contract needs to send all the information and a form filled and signed by yourself.
Easiest would be to ask them via Email (comptabilitat@xta.cat or comercial@xta.cat) what you want to do and they will send you all the forms, ideally cc the current holder. I asked them in English and they tried to reply in English as well but later only send the mails in Spanish/Catalan, which is fine since you can just use Google Translator (which I do a lot in mails, always works fine)
If you have any questions or need help, just leave a comment or look into my other posts about “Moving to Barcelona” .