I moved house and closed my OVO account but my details have been found through 'trace and search' - how can I stop the debt collectors contacting me?

Using the documents for the property you moved to is usually sufficient.

It’s not quite clear from what you write what the status of this property is. If it’s vacant as you say, then it’s the owner who’s responsible for paying the electricity and gas bills until a new occupier comes along and takes over responsibility for them. 

It’s not enough just to move out; while there are utility meters installed, there are charges to be paid even if there is no usage. If there are no meter readings being submitted, then bills will be based on estimates. 

Have you told OVO who is now responsible for paying the property’s bills?

Hey @ExCustomer,

Really sorry for the issues you’ve had, 

Blastoise’ advice should help here. 

It sounds like whoever has assumed liability of the property- the new owner, tenant or landlord has failed to contact OVO to set up an account. So it’s had to go to a debt collection agency and your wife must have had letters sent to the property so they’ve identified her as liable, incorrectly.

Any evidence that she is liable at another property now should be sufficient. This can be given directly to the debt collection agency as they’re now responsible for the debt. 

Do you know who is now responsible for the property? If it’s a letting agent it might be helpful to pass on those details. 

Hope this is all sorted now. 

in july i closed my account on a rental property , i was sent a final bill by ovo . but this was using an estimated reading . the bill showed a debit of around £160 on my account . i took an actual reading from the meter and sent it in to ovo , i then recieved a refund of around £120 as my reading was a lot lower than the estimated reading . all great . but since then i have been harassed by ovo for the £160 i was originally billed for . despite them already refunding me money . i looked today on the old account and im still showed as owing £160 despite me explaining their error numerous times

So, I see that this has happened before,  Hello,

I am now getting daily phone calls from the collections department at OVO about a bill that has been generated in my son’s name, Data Harvesting?, starting on the date we moved out of the property being billed for. 

Ironically I’m still waiting for my final bill but instead we received via the Royal Mail’s forwarding service a ‘welcome pack’, a ‘sorry you’re leaving us’ and a final bill for a property that we don’t live in. 

In my time as an OVO customer I had cause to complain on multiple occasions for reasons that I won’t list here so as not to confuse the issue.  Most of my complaints required escalation and took as many as 6 months to be resolved. 

The welcome pack letter was generated on the 14th December, the final bill was generated on the 15th December. The letter came with an old school bank giro credit slip as payment was being required. 

On January 2nd I contacted the complaints department directly and raised a complaint with them. There were no security answers set since we didn’t ask for the account and it was agreed that I would be dealing with this issue. I gave our current address and my contact details for the Complaints team to be able to keep me informed. I requested an email to confirm the issues discussed and was told “I am writing it now”. It never arrived. Instead my contact details were used to send a debt collection text message and a debt collection email. 

On January 3rd I called again to update the complaint with this new issue of harassment. It was duly noted and I was told I would not get these messages or emails again. I was also told that my complaint had been escalated and that I would be contacted by the newly-assigned case manager within 48 hours. This time frame has now expired. 

On January 4th I received a phone call from the Collections Department with the purpose of getting my son to pay his debt. Long conversation ensued during which it was agreed I should not have been contacted this way, notes were taken. I was told I would not be contacted again. An email was promised. 

This morning, January 5th, I received another phone call from the Collections team for the same purpose i.e. To “contact the account holder to have a discussion about the account” (the FAKE ACCOUNT that is). It was explained to me that the system had prompted the employee to make the call (“systemically provided”) and an acknowledgement of error was made “It is clear that you were not meant to be contacted … We should not have called”

Then I tried to update the complaint. Despite having successfully spoken with the department twice already this week and having managed to navigate the automated system’s need for security answers, and despite my contact details being the only ones on their records and despite my now encyclopaedic knowledge of what is going on. Two new voices refused to speak to me because I am ‘not the account holder’. These two were actually, in my opinion, very rude. 

Summing up:

Fake account in my son’s name (assumption: some sort of data harvesting exercise) Question: fraudulent? 

Closed a previous account in my name for the property we moved out of on the 2nd October (email received in confirmation, final bill never received) 

Bills we would not have known about had we not had a forwarding service in place arrived just before Christmas

Complaint raised 2.1.24

Debt collection text message and email 3.1.24

Complaint escalated 3.1.24

Debt collection phone call 4.1.24

Debt collection phone call 5.1.24

Complaints team refused to speak to me 5.1.24 (Twice, and rudely)

Any ideas anybody?

1 reply 

0 views

Please @Blastoise186 would you mind reading my post before commenting. 

Thank you

I’ve spoken to the forum provider, they agree that the 0 views is a bug which is now being investigated on their end. I’m not OVO staff myself, but I have special permissions that allow me to do that.

As for the fraud/data harvesting question? Nope, neither is true. If you don’t totally shut down everything properly when moving out, it can leave you financially linked to that address - this is what OVO probably picked up via the Collections Team using Trace & Search to deal with an unknown occupier. It’s a completely legitimate process that OVO is entitled to do in order to collect debts and/or what is owed for services provided and not paid for.

You need to provide proof that you’re no longer at that property, which should close that account. Please also provide OVO with info on who’s now responsible if you can.

Hey @notanOVOcustomer,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

It seems like the new owner or tenant hasn’t set up an account, or perhaps switched away without paying their interim payment with OVO.

OVO would have attempted to send letters to the occupier to get them to pay the monies owed, when they didn’t OVO would have gone to a debt collection agency.

This agency would have found your sons details through ‘trace and search’ (which means communications would have gone to your son at that address or there would have been some kind of ‘mark’ there, so the assumption was he was now in the property and responsible for the bills). 

Your son needs to contact the DCA and advise he has moved out and isn’t liable for this arrears and they will remove his name. 

Hope this helps. 

A few things aren’t clear there, including whether you are moving in or moving out of this flat?

So it’s question time:
Have you moved out, or moved in?
If you have moved in then have you set up a new account with the supplier?
If you moved out has the final statement been delivered to your new address?
Is the final statement addressed to you by name or to ‘The Occupier’?
Was there a void period where the property was stood empty? (I realise you may not know that if you moved out).
Is the final statement from OVO - or as it’s a pre-payment meter is the statement from BOOST?
Is it a statement or is it a bill? ie Is it asking for a payment to be made?

If you are moving in then you need to set up an account to get the supply in your name.
You give them the meter reading(s) as they are on the date that your Tenancy starts (which may be before you actually move in) and should then only be liable for usage and the standing charge(s) after that.

If you are moving out then you submit the final meter reading(s) as they are when you move out and should then only be liable for the charges up to those readings on that date.

Obviously one or both of the above has been done for a ‘Final statement’ to be issued.

But of course there is often a ‘letting void’ the period between one person moving out and another moving in, anything used during those void periods, and the daily standing charge(s) is somebody’s responsibility to pay for.

Any credit left on a pre-payment meter during a void period will still be used up daily by the standing charge even if no energy is being used.
If there is no credit on the meter then they will build up as a debit to be paid later.

Responsible landlords will often get the supply put briefly into their name if there is going to be a long ‘letting void’, particularly if they are going to have workmen/cleaners in the property using electricity.
Then the incoming tenants get it put into their name when their tenancy agreement starts (or rather whichever is the earlier of when they move in or when the TA starts).
However if there is no letting void or only a day or two, or if the landlord just can’t be bothered, then it gets left for the incoming tenant to sort out.

Good point,

“I’ve got a flat” isn’t particularly clear about that.

I hadn’t entirely missed the possibility that @Paul m might also be the landlord rather than a tenant, the question about moving in or out should have captured it if/when answered.
With the minimal information that we have been given so far then being the LL is possible too.

If Paul is the landlord here then my comments about void periods would be the most relevant.

Hi @Thatitan234,

I’m sorry to hear this.

Is the email address that you’ve sent your documents by linked to the account? If not, this may be why you’re struggling to get a response. It may be worth trying to contact the team by phone on 0330 303 5063 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm). Please let me know how you get on.

This thread might also be helpful - 

That’s good to hear - sounds like this will get resolved then.

Just so you know, please allow a month or two for everything to get fully cleaned up and the records fixed. OVO sends updates such as retractions to Experian only once a month but once done correctly, the debt should permanently disappear from your credit file OR at very least have a giant warning note telling other companies to ignore/disregard it.

Please wait until the end of September and then ask Experian to produce a Statutory Credit Report, which you can generate via https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html . There is no charge for this service and you DO NOT need to sign up for Experian CreditExpert to get it - they must give you this report for free at least once a year.

I hope this helps.