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Moved into new property and I owe previous tenants bill, why?


I have previously moved into a new property supplied by OVO and as now the legal occupier I opened a letter to them sending debt collectors round because the previous tenants hadn’t paid their bill!

I was mortified that they are doing this! I tried calling and couldn’t get through to them at first. When I did the gentleman was very reassuring and told me he would rectify the bill and did the sale pitch to which I decided to stay with them.

Received the new statement and they are still trying to charge me!! I’ve had it with this company already! Painful is an understatement! Plus my new email as a new client states they are open Saturday they are not!

Not at all happy and want to go back to Bulb Energy even though they are slightly more expensive. Customer service was second to none.

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Best answer by Amy_OVO 12 August 2019, 14:29

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Userlevel 6

Updated on 25/08/23 by Emmanuelle_OVO

 

Sorry for any confusion caused by the debt notification letters you’ve received since moving home - rest assured you won’t be responsible for any energy used by a previous tenant.

 

Sounds like we are currently supplying the energy to your new home and have sent out these letters addressed to ‘The Occupier’, as we don’t currently have an account set-up for you. First things first, you’ll need to let us know you’ve moved in - If your new home is supplied by OVO, you can call our Support Team on 0330 303 5063, we’re open Monday- Friday 9am to 5pm. Or, if you’d prefer to do it all online you can sign up here

 

Once you put in your new address details the website will recognise we already supply your new home and give you a quote based on the usage figures we have for the property. 

 

Even if you’re planning on switching suppliers - we’ll need a temporary account created in order to cover the period before your switch. When we create your account we’ll check the date you moved in and the meter readings on this date (unless you’ve got a Smart meter!) and create you an account starting from this point. There’s more detailed advice on this process in the guide below:

 

 

Once you’ve created an account, any letters addressed to ‘The Occupier’ can be ignored - they may have been posted out before your account was created or relate to a time that you’re not responsible for. The charges showing on these letters won’t have an impact on your account.

 

We’ll contact you with your first statement (either via post or email depending on your chosen method) within 4 weeks of you creating an account . You’ll know it’s your statement as we’ll address it to your name, rather than to ‘The Occupier’. The easiest way to keep an eye on your new account is by logging in to your online account or downloading our app (available for iOS and Android)

 

There’s more tips on how to manage your energy account when you move home on this great guide, and other moving house advice on this handy checklist

 

Good luck with the unpacking. :thumbsup:

 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

 

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

 

Dear OVO,

I’ve some question about the bill. And I tried to contact to you via email, chat and phone. but there is no response. How can I contact to you.

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Hi,

Sorry, only just saw my tag in this. Unfortunately I'm not really an expert in the way OVO sets out its bills so I think you are probably better off in @Blastoise186 's safe hands.

Hi @juliamc ,

 

Thanks for your information.

“PM” is “personal message”? Do you mean to chat with the OVO’s agent.

 

Thanks,
Thura

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Ah no - I meant our new Prime Minister ! Let’s hope !

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A further though Thura, can you ask the Property Management people to show you how to access the electricity meter, or explain how to get it from the NetThings screen?

:D :D I see :D :D

 

I’ll send an email to property management tomorrow morning. and explain to them. Yes, I think it is the only way to find out the error.

 

Thanks @juliamc.  

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I'm afraid I'm struggling a bit here. Net Things appears to be a dead company. I'm attempting to trace their timeline to see if I can figure out what happened to them. 

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Ok, finally got somewhere. NetThings as a company is dead. It collapsed into administration in December 2018 and was dissolved in February 2020, according to https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC313913 .

The assets were sold/transferred to J-Teq Energy Ltd https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC618189 . They are said to continue supporting the system to this day. The website also redirects to https://j-teq-energy.co.uk/ .

The system in question is a building management system, for use in what’s called intelligent buildings. Although NetThings is dead, J-teq Energy said that they’re going to continue supporting that system for the foreseeable future. Probably could do with some firmware updates though!

This system is not SMETS1 or SMETS2 compliant and cannot be used for metrology purposes. In other words, OVO can’t see it nor read anything from it remotely, and it cannot be used for meter readings because it won’t have gone through the certifications required to enable this.

There will be another electricity meter somewhere in the building. You’re looking for one that matches the Meter Serial Number on your bills. Your MSN has 19L at the start, so you’re looking for a SMETS2 Landis+Gyr E470.

Phew! Tracing that mess took longer than I expected!

WOW
 

Amazing tracing. Thanks @Blastoise186

 

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No worries. I literally had to read 134 pages worth of company documents and administrators reports to get the full picture of exactly what happened. I might be fast at reading, but man that took a lot of work!

The things I do for this forum are just beyond explaining! :P

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Hi @thura747 Did you get a reply from your property management people?

Hi there, since 2020 OVO have had 2 accounts running in my name for the same property.

one of the accounts, the one I pay into, is in credit. Good standing etc

the other account, has been running in the background and racking up debt, FOR THE SAME HOUSE?

I’ve been trying to get this sorted since 2020 with multiple complaints raised. How long does this mondo of thing take?

it’s taking an emotional toll on me as this ghost account racks up debt I don’t owe.

Userlevel 7

I’ve never heard this happen before, @tmlbumble - how odd. So sorry to hear how long it’s been dragging on for. 

 

Surely we can remove your name and details from the erroneous account, or better yet, stop this account from being billed. Our Support team will need to be the one to raise this with the right team, but you’ve mentioned having multiple complaints. What were the outcomes of those? How has it been left?

 

 

Hi @thura747 Did you get a reply from your property management people?

I’m waiting some of the evidences and I’ll be back.

Hello. 

 Since January of this year I have been receiving monthly letters relating to an OVO account that is believed to belong to the pervious tenants. The letters are addressed to my partner and state that we have an outstanding balance of around £400. 

We have spoke to OVO support both over the phone and via email each time we receive a letter. Every single time we are told that it is a glitch/error with their trace and search system and that the bill is not ours. Depending who we speak to on the day, we will hear one of the below statements:

  • Ignore the letter as the account is not ours 
  • They can’t find the account in the system so it probably won't happen again 
  • They spoke to the collections team and now the account has been put on hold to stop further letters

The last person we spoke to appeared to be very helpful as they apparently argued with the collections team about why we keep receiving the letters. I genuinely believed the issue had been resolved at last however, just this week we have received a further 2 letters. They are now threatening to pass our details to a debt collection agency within 7 days which will negatively affect our credit file. This is completely unfair as we have tried endlessly to resolve the issue.

For reference, we have previously established that this account/bill was for a period before we owned the property. We have submitted proof of ownership date (solicitor letter) and also hold our own OVO account at the same address. I think having our own account with OVO is partly why the system has automatically tried to pin the bill to us as I guess it’s easier than actually tracking down the previous tenant.

If anyone here could recommend anything else I can try before our credit score is ruined that would be great. As above I have already called their support team along with emailing both support and collections, they simply don’t seem to be able to help and I’m pretty much out of options.

Thank you,

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Hi @Tim94 ,

That’s a bit of a mess huh? It sounds like the Collections Team did a Trace & Search that accidentally associated the bill to you. I’d recommend talking to them directly on Monday, rather than going via Support. The number to call is 0800 069 9831.

I’ve placed a marker on this thread for the forum moderators to pick up as well.

Hi @Tim94 ,

That’s a bit of a mess huh? It sounds like the Collections Team did a Trace & Search that accidentally associated the bill to you. I’d recommend talking to them directly on Monday, rather than going via Support. The number to call is 0800 069 9831.

I’ve placed a marker on this thread for the forum moderators to pick up as well.

Thank you very much for sharing the number, I will call them on Monday and keep the thread updated. 

Userlevel 7

Hey @Tim94,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having, this sounds very frustrating.

 

@Blastoise186 has given some good advice here, contact the Collections Team directly. 

 

It might also help to double check that the account that’s in your partners name, gets changed back to ‘The Occupier’ (if it’s for a period prior to your liability) or deleted (if it’s for an overlapping period). 

 

Please keep us posted with how you get on!

Hello all, 

Just an update on this to say that I have spoken to the collections team. They have put the old account on hold for 1 month while they investigate the issue with the hope that it will be resolved before the hold expires. I had to resubmit proof of ownership date but fingers crossed that this will be the end of the issue. I was previously told that the account was put on hold but I never heard about any investigation so I’m a bit more hopeful this time. 

It appears that they can’t simply remove our name/address from the old account, or just reverse the trace and search. I guess someone higher up needs to review what we provided before doing so. 

Thanks again for the helpful suggestion. I will update this thread if we hear anything further.  

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Hello all, 

Just an update on this to say that I have spoken to the collections team. They have put the old account on hold for 1 month while they investigate the issue with the hope that it will be resolved before the hold expires. I had to resubmit proof of ownership date but fingers crossed that this will be the end of the issue. I was previously told that the account was put on hold but I never heard about any investigation so I’m a bit more hopeful this time. 

It appears that they can’t simply remove our name/address from the old account, or just reverse the trace and search. I guess someone higher up needs to review what we provided before doing so. 

Thanks again for the helpful suggestion. I will update this thread if we hear anything further.  

I would recommend phoning them up a few days before the 1 month is up if you don't hear anything in case the hold needs extending again. I don't like saying it, but 1 month at the moment for ovo resolving issues is not long for some issues we see on the forum.

Hello all, 

Just an update on this to say that I have spoken to the collections team. They have put the old account on hold for 1 month while they investigate the issue with the hope that it will be resolved before the hold expires. I had to resubmit proof of ownership date but fingers crossed that this will be the end of the issue. I was previously told that the account was put on hold but I never heard about any investigation so I’m a bit more hopeful this time. 

It appears that they can’t simply remove our name/address from the old account, or just reverse the trace and search. I guess someone higher up needs to review what we provided before doing so. 

Thanks again for the helpful suggestion. I will update this thread if we hear anything further.  

I would recommend phoning them up a few days before the 1 month is up if you don't hear anything in case the hold needs extending again. I don't like saying it, but 1 month at the moment for ovo resolving issues is not long for some issues we see on the forum.

That’s a good point. I will set a reminder for 25 days time.

Thank you, 

I moved in to an apartment on 20th August 2022, and setup my electricity account with OVO (who’s been providing electricity to the previous tenants at this apartment as well).

I’ve been receiving  letters addressed to ‘The Occupier’ asking to clear up pending dues for a different account number (I presume it’s the previous tenant’s). My electricity account has an auto-debit payment setup and all my payments are up to date.

Today, I received a letter (again addressed to ‘The Occupier’) stating that if the previous dues aren’t cleared, the debt will be passed onto debt collection agency and will impact the credit file. This is mortifying, and not expected when OVO itself should have an update that someone else is now staying on the property and whose payments are all up to date.

Can anyone please help with steps to resolve this.

 

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Hey @pranav07sood ,

Just a heads up so you’re aware. I’m one of the forum volunteers, so I can’t resolve this directly myself.

You can safely ignore those letters for the most part. As long as you have proof of when you moved in, such as a signed tenancy agreement or contract of sale, that’ll prove you’re not related to the debt.

Please give the Collections Team a call on 0800 069 9831 and explain the situation. They’ll be able to help resolve this for you.

Remember, if it’s NOT your debt, you don’t owe a penny!

@Blastoise186 Thank you for your response. I’ll call up the collections team and try to get it resolved.

Thanks once again!

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