Hi @Chxrlxttie, 

I can appreciate how alarming this must be for you! I would recommend as you haven’t already, to contact our Support Team. You can find how to contact them here. They’ll be able to look into this further for you and keep you updated.

Please let us know how it goes. 

Small update for everyone. 
OVO have said that the debt is from the date I moved in up until January last year when it was switched to utilita. However I have always been with utilita. 
can there be debt when I use a top up key? If I ever used my emergency credit I paid it off at the shop before my supply was put back on. 
awaiting evidence from the management company of the property 

Debts can rack up on PAYG, mostly if you don’t top-up. I can’t say what happened in this case though - I can’t see those things myself.

Even if I paid off the emergency credit when I topped up next?

Usually, that’d clear it. But there may have been other debts on the meter from before you moved in that might have still been present somehow.

Obviously I don't know all the details

But there is a law around backbilling

So it would be worth asking about that. OVO can't backbill for anything over 12 months. It normally comes up with Direct Debit customers.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

@ChristopherS_OVO without going into specifics, what are the backbilling rules for top up key meters for previous customers? This bill is over 12 months old by the look of things? I assume the backbilling law applies to all meters?

It would be worth asking for something in writing from utilita about when they think you joined them @Chxrlxttie 

Hi @Chxrlxttie, 

I can give you more insight into key meters. You can have two types of debt on a Traditional meter; the first is the debt on the meter itself. This is used for emergency credit to stop you from going immediately off supply. The second is any debt added to the account, such as when we let you borrow credit when you feel you are struggling and need help. The first debt can be paid off by simply topping up the meter, and the second is typically paid back at a daily rate. We have a complete guide on this here. Did the team ask you to submit evidence, including the date you got the keys? This usually helps us establish liability for the property and its associated debts. I recommend calling the team at 0330 175 9669 once you have the documents from your property manager, and they can investigate this further. 

@Jeffus  This would apply if we had made a mistake in the billing and had to correct it after 12 months or if we hadn’t billed the customer. In these scenarios, we would look at writing off the debt. In this particular scenario, I would be guessing without seeing the account and the specifics. It would all come down to whether the account was correctly billed. 

Please keep us updated, and if you don’t make any progress calling in, let us know, and we can try to dig into this a bit deeper for you.

Check this thread.

Same situation and I finally got it sorted.

Seems to be a common failing of OVO.