Utilities in the Netherlands: setting up energy and water at a new address, and choosing between fixed, variable and dynamic contracts

When you rent or buy a self-contained home in the Netherlands, gas and electricity do not start automatically. You choose an energy supplier yourself and sign a contract for the address. Water works differently: one regional company serves your area, and you register with it. Some rooms and studios have an inclusive rent that covers gas, water and electricity. Then the landlord holds the contracts and you can skip the setup steps; the rental contracts guide explains inclusive rent and service costs, and the finding a rental guide shows how to read what a listing includes. For everyone else, this guide covers who is who on the energy market, the setup steps, the three contract types, the monthly advance, district heating, the water account, and the problems that cost new tenants money.

Two companies stand behind every Dutch energy connection, and you choose only one of them. The energy supplier (leverancier) is a commercial company. It buys electricity and gas and sells them to you, and it sends your bill. You pick it yourself and you can switch. The grid operator (netbeheerder) owns the cables and gas pipes and connects your home to the grid. It is fixed for your region, for example Liander or Enexis. You cannot choose it, and it only changes when you move to another region. Enter your postcode on Mijnaansluiting.nl to see which one is yours.

You do not receive a separate bill from the netbeheerder. Your supplier collects the network costs on its behalf. One energy bill therefore has three parts: supply costs for what you use plus a fixed delivery amount, fixed network costs for the netbeheerder, and taxes. ACM ConsuWijzer, the consumer desk of the national consumer and markets authority, explains each part of the bill and is the reference for most rules in this guide. The practical split: for prices, contracts and bills you contact your supplier; for power failures, the connection and the meter itself you contact your netbeheerder.

Arrange the contract before you get the keys. You sign up online with the supplier and set the start date yourself. Waiting is risky, because an address where nobody holds a contract does not stay connected: grid operators are legally required to disconnect it, as Enexis explains. Energy used without a contract is billed to you afterwards, and reconnection after a disconnection costs extra.

• Compare suppliers before key day. Check more than one comparison site; ACM ConsuWijzer advises this because sites carry different offers.
• Sign with the supplier you chose and set the start date to the day you get the keys. If you are switching from another contract, the new supplier arranges the switch with the old one.
• You have 14 days of bedenktijd (cooling-off period) after signing. You can cancel by email, without a reason and without cost. If the supplier never told you about this right, the cooling-off period runs up to 1 year.
• On key day, photograph every meter and pass the opening readings (meterstanden) to your supplier within 5 working days. A smart meter passes readings automatically, but take the photos anyway.
• Check the first monthly advance in the supplier's app and adjust it if it does not fit your household. The common-problems section explains how.

Every supplier sells the same electricity and gas. The contracts differ in one thing: who carries the risk of price changes.

The cancellation fee (opzegvergoeding) applies only when you end a fixed contract before the end of its term, and only if the contract itself names the fee. The current rules set the amount at the supplier's loss: your expected remaining usage multiplied by the difference between your fixed rate and the supplier's current rate for new contracts. When market prices have risen or stayed level, that loss is zero and you pay nothing. A calculated fee stays valid for 2 months, so ask for the amount before you decide. The notice period for ending any energy contract is at most 1 month.

Switching supplier needs little from you. Choose the new supplier and sign up; the new supplier arranges the switch with your old one. For a first Dutch contract, many newcomers start with a variable or a 1-year fixed contract and compare properly a year later. A dynamic contract fits when you can shift usage to cheap hours and can absorb an expensive winter month.

You do not pay for your exact usage each month. You pay a fixed monthly advance, the termijnbedrag (also called voorschot). Once a year the supplier compares all advances with your real usage in the jaarafrekening (annual settlement). If you paid too much, the difference comes back to your account. If you paid too little, an extra bill follows. The supplier estimates the advance from current prices and from past usage at the address. For a new address that means the previous residents' usage, not yours. You can usually change the advance yourself in the supplier's app or on its website.

A smart meter (slimme meter) sends your meter readings to the netbeheerder automatically, so you do not pass readings for the annual settlement. Since 1 January 2026 the last old analog meters are being replaced by smart or digital meters; keeping the old dial meter is no longer an option. You do keep a choice about your data, as Rijksoverheid explains: you can refuse the smart meter and get a digital meter that does not send readings, or ask the netbeheerder to switch the transmit function off. In both cases you pass the readings yourself once a year.

Not every home heats with its own gas boiler. With stadsverwarming (district heating), homes get heat through a heat network that uses leftover heat, for example from electricity generation or industry, to warm water for the heating and the hot tap. With blokverwarming (block heating), one shared source heats a whole building or complex, for example a central boiler or one collective connection to the heat network. In both cases you cannot choose or switch the heat supplier; the government's heating page is clear that no national heat network exists. Electricity stays separate: the home still needs a normal electricity contract that you choose.

Because you cannot leave, the Warmtewet (Heat Act) caps the price. The ACM sets binding maximum heat tariffs every year. For 2026 the maximums are €40.97 per gigajoule (GJ) of heat, €615.66 per year in fixed costs for heating and hot water, and €33.73 per year for the meter. The idea behind the cap is that a district-heating household should not pay more than a household with a gas boiler. If your landlord or the owners' association (VvE) delivers the heat, the costs usually run through your service costs; the rental contracts guide covers how to check those.

Drinking water has no market. One regional water company serves your address, and you register with that company; find yours by postcode on the map of Vewin, the association of Dutch water companies. Always report your move to the water company. You can register from the day you receive the key of the new home. If you move within the same region, pass the meter readings of the old and new address to the same company; it closes the old address with a final bill. If you move to another region, cancel at your old company and register with the new one.

Expect a second water letter that is not from your water company. The waterschap (regional water board) sends the waterschapsbelasting (water board tax), a tax for dikes and water management. It is separate from your drinking-water bill, and paying one does not cover the other. The municipal taxes guide explains that bill, the gemeente taxes that arrive at the same address, and the kwijtschelding (waiver) for low incomes.

You get the keys, flip a switch, and nothing happens. The usual cause: the previous resident cancelled their contract, nobody took over, and the netbeheerder disconnected the address, as it must when no active contract exists. The route back runs through a supply contract: sign with a supplier, then contact the netbeheerder about reconnection and its costs, and ask how long it takes. You avoid the whole situation by signing your contract before key day, with the key date as start date. If the seller or previous tenant is still reachable, ask before moving day whether energy on the address is currently active.

A first annual settlement, or a final bill after you move on, can contain usage from before your key date. That happens when the supplier works with estimated readings instead of your real move-in readings. Your protection is the set of dated photos from key day. Both the eindafrekening (final bill) and the jaarafrekening state the readings they are based on, and the bill shows whether readings were estimated. Check them against your photos. If they do not match, send the photos to the supplier and ask for a corrected bill. The final bill after a move or switch must reach you within 6 weeks, so you can check it while the photos are fresh.

A high advance for a newcomer is common: the supplier estimated it on the previous residents' usage, perhaps a family of four where you live alone. Lower it in the app if your real usage is clearly smaller. The reverse problem hurts more. With a too-low advance, the annual settlement turns into one large extra bill. After your first winter months, compare your real usage in the supplier's app with the advance and adjust it. The energy section of the cost of living guide gives reference figures per household type, so you can see whether your advance is in a normal range.

React to the payment reminders; every protection starts there. Your supplier must send at least 3 reminders and give you at least 14 days with each one, must try to reach you personally, must offer a reasonable payment plan and must point you to schuldhulpverlening (debt help) via your gemeente. The rules on disconnection protect you further: the contract may not be ended while you keep to an agreed payment plan, while your complaint about the bill is being handled, while a debt-help application or process runs, or when a doctor who is not your own treating doctor states that disconnection would create very serious health risks for you or a housemate. These protections apply the whole year; the extra winter protection of earlier years is now the year-round standard. If you were already disconnected, proof that you entered debt help obliges the supplier and netbeheerder to reconnect you immediately. For the drinking-water bill the pattern is similar: a written reminder first, a debt-help offer, and no disconnection when it would cause serious health risks.

Tell your energy supplier about the move, ideally at least 2 weeks ahead. Then choose. Taking the contract to the new address avoids any cancellation fee, and usually it can even run on both addresses during the overlap. Ending a contract without a fixed term is free and needs at most 1 month's notice. Ending a fixed contract early can cost the opzegvergoeding, and moving or emigrating does not remove that fee. If gas and electricity run with two different suppliers, contact both. On your last day, photograph the meters in the old home and pass the readings within 5 working days; the final bill follows within 6 weeks. Report the move to your water company in the same week, with the water readings, and it closes that account too.

Energy and water are first-week tasks in a larger row: the first 90 days checklist puts them in order next to your BSN, insurance and bank account. Internet and mobile are separate contracts on their own market; the phone and internet guide covers those. And a few months after you register at the address, the tax bills of the gemeente and the waterschap arrive; the municipal taxes guide explains each bill and how to ask for the waiver.