3. Cancel an extended or renewed contract

After you extend or renew your energy contract, you can cancel it for any reason within 14 days of extending or renewing it. This is called the cooling-off period. The energy retailer cannot charge you any cancellation or other fees during this time.

The date that you extend or renew the contract is the date that you:

• mailed the documents to the energy retailer to extend or renew your contract, or
• agreed to the extension or renewal by phone or by email.

Cancelling up to 30 days after your second bill

If you cancel your energy contract less than 30 days after you get your second bill, you do not have to pay a cancellation fee.

But you will have to pay for any electricity you used before you cancelled the contract.

Cancelling more than 30 days after your second bill

If you cancel an energy contract more than 30 days after you get your second bill, you might have to pay a cancellation fee.

Every energy contract must include information about how to cancel the contract and how much you will have to pay to cancel it.

You usually cannot be charged more than $50 to cancel if your energy contract is for your home. 

But the cancellation fees can be different if your contract is for a small business, or if you use a lot more electricity than what is typical for a home. Check what your contract says.

How to cancel

Your energy contract should have information about how to cancel your contract. This information might also be on your energy retailer's website.

You can always cancel by writing to the energy retailer. Sometimes you can cancel by phone.

The law says energy retailers have to let you cancel your contract by writing. But they do not always have to let you cancel by phone. Check what your contract says. If your contract says that you cannot cancel by phone, then you have to cancel by writing to your energy retailer.

If you can cancel by phone, the energy retailer must record the call and send you written confirmation of your cancellation.