My late parents home was sold on 12 th January this year and I forwarded final bill reading to our solicitor who is administering the estate . He in turn advised OVO who produced a bill six weeks later. This was incorrect and he queried it. I have spoken to the solicitor today and he advised he has still not had a response. This matter is holding up the finalisation of my parents estate and according to my solicitor there is nothing we can do about it. Can anyone advise what if anything can be downloaded be in this situation.

That should read done in this situation.

Good evening @Christopher 1 ,

I’m one of the forum volunteers. We’re sorry for your loss.

This sounds like something that might need a bit more knowledge than we’ve got. I’ve gone ahead and placed a marker against this thread to ask the forum moderators to stop by. They should see it when they next check in.

If I can help with anything else, please let me know

Thank you for your assistance.

Hi @Christopher 1

Sorry to hear that. 

While you are waiting for one of the moderators, probably tomorrow morning now. 

You may already know this, but in case it helps there is a dedicated email address and phone number that may help

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/bereavement

6 weeks for a final bill is the maximum under the ofgem rules, shame there were queries about it. 

Thank you for responding.  My solicitor wrote over six weeks ago querying the final bill. When I spoke to him yesterday he had had no response and was basically saying its the way it is with energy companies. I appreciate  there is a standard time to produce the initial bill but to be able to ignore a query for a further six weeks seems excessive.

Hey @Christopher 1,

Do you know how the Solicitor has attempted to contact OVO?

The best way to contact us is by calling our dedicated team on 0330 175 9683 or emailing bereavement@ovoenergy.com.

He has been in contact by both letter and phone on several occasions. All of which will be billed to the estate.

He spoke to OVO on Friday and now believes  OVO have finally acknowledged  their mistake and have agreed to producing another final bill. Coincidentally ,following the advice received  on this forum , I have raised the issue with the Bereavement dept. and am awaiting a reply . Hopefully  between us we will receive  a response.

It really is the last thing any family deserves following a bereavement. There should be far stricter regulation around final bills relating to deceased customers. Our solicitor advises us that it is all part of the "appallingly  low standards" he regularly  encounters from energy companies.

Hi @Christopher 1 

Would you mind sharing what the actual issue was with the final bill your solicitor received. 

It may help other people who visit this customer forum in the future about what to watch out for. 

The error  relates to OVO producing a bill claiming a four figure debt is outstanding  based on their estimated readings despite the property being empty for twelve months and paying bills by direct debit until April 2022. I provided photographic evidence of meter readings on the day of sale which were immediately sent to OVO. We were prepared to accept that there is a six to eight week delay in producing a final bill. However when it was clearly wrong and a solicitors letter was sent pointing the error out the very least that would be expected is a prompt reply. It is now over 12 weeks since we complied with the requirement to submit immediate final readings and OVO haven't seen fit to have the courtesy of replying to our solicitor . 

Not sure what it will teach other customers but if you will forgive me I feel I have posted enough on the for now. I feel pretty exhausted with the entire matter and just hope that it will be resolved shortly.

Hey @Christopher 1,

I’m really sorry to hear of your experience,

I’m sure now you’ve contacted the bereavement team they’ll be able to re-issue the final bill. If you haven’t already I’d advise emailing them directly with the meter reading photo taken on the day of the sale. 

Hope this gets resolved for you as soon as possible. 

I closed my Mothers account in August 2023 as she moved to a care home and sadly died

At first all seemed good with OVO as the closed everything and produced a final bill and credited her bank account

The  house has gone into Probate so probaly won’t be sold until next year - 2024

I live in Leicester and my parents house is in Hampshire , so my neighbour posts any letters deemed important to me

I was shocked today to receive a letter stating they may send someone in to cut off the supply and demanding payment.

The account number on the letter is not even my Mothers old account!

What is going on !

Sorry to hear about your mother. It’s not pleasant having to deal with stuff like this when you’re grieving.

Even though your mother’s account has been closed, there is still a supply to the house, and that costs even though there’s little or no usage. It is now the responsibility of your mother’s estate and will remain so until probate is settled and someone else takes it over, so there will still be bills to pay. I don’t know if this is the reason why demands for payment are being sent, but if whoever is handling the estate hasn’t been paying, it’s not unlikely. 

OVO’s bereavement team should be able to help sort this out; the instructions in the first post in this thread are quite explicit.

Thank you for that, but nobody explained that to me at all. And secondly the account number on the demand is not my Mothers account number. If OVO had advised me I needed to pay standing charges that could have been set up. But I was never told anything just that everything had closed

That’s sad, and I hope that @Emmanuelle_OVO or @Abby_OVO will make sure that those who report the death of a customer get the advice and support they need. 

You mention that the account number on the demand notices was not your mother’s. That’s not surprising - that account had been closed, after all. I’d like to know, though, who the demand letters were addressed to: The occupier, perhaps? 

Yes it is disturbing as they new I was acting on Mother’s behalf prior to this but nothing was sent to me other than the final bill for my Mother.

Yes correct the letters are addressed to The Occupier and threatening to gain entry to the house I find disgraeful and I will be speaking to my Solictor on Monday as well as speaking with OVO

I would have expected a solicitor handling a case like this to have made sure the executor (you, presumably) was aware of his obligations, e.g. to utility companies. 

Best of luck tomorrow.

True, but I would have expected OVO energy to help and inform me when the account was closed

Sending threatening letters for a debt of £125 is disgraceful

Just to butt in here… could you forward the bill to your solicitor for them to settle it out of the estate ?

Also why base the consumption on an occupied house when it was empty , answer me that?

13 KW/hr have been used in 3 months amounting to around £4 of electricity plus 3 months of standing charges they do not seem to have any idea

So they send a bill for £125, so my estimation is that I owe them less than £40 if that

No problem , but the estate is in Probate and all funds frozen

The final bill once the house is sold (assuming that’s what happens) will need a closing meter reading and at that point any overpayment will be refunded. If I remember rightly my late mother’s energy bill was transferred into the name ”the executors of ….” and I was able to submit meter readings to keep it up to date.

Thank you, well I am hoping OVO will understand tomorrow what has happended and then I can give them actual readings and explain the house is empty and no appliances powered up except for the boiler set on frost protection

Hey @markwa 

I’m really sorry to hear about this, it sounds like a difficult situation.

Juliamc and Firedog have given some good advice here, and the Support Team will definitely be able to help you with this - we don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so we are limited to advising on what to do.

They’ll be able to take meter readings from you and correct any estimated bills. Let us know how you get on, and if there’s anything else we can help with.

Thank you for all the help

I spoke with OVO team first thing this morning and a few apologies from them as to why the acccount had been handled incorrectly

The account will now move to an Executors account and I just need to give monthly readings and when Probate has gone through and the house sold then the account can settled from the  sale of the estate

Neil on the bereavement team was really helpful and I would give him 11/10 if I could.