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

That is annoying. 

Just because the standard ovo complaints processes is that you need to be a customer, I think you really should be able to raise a complaint against an organisation.

That feels like the computer won't let us raise a complaint and I don't know how to log it. 

You could try emailing the ovo CEO to see if you can get anywhere. 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

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?

Have you made progress @ExCustomer ?

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. 

It is not sorted.  Customer services just keep asking for the same thing over and over and we keep saying we don’t have it.  They obviously aren’t measured on this and I get the feeling they just don’t care. 

There is no debt collection agency involved (yet) so any identification was not done as part of pursuing a debt, it was specifically done to open the account. 
The obvious first point of call which was never attempted would have been to simply ask me who would be taking over the account but, like I said, I was never asked.   I have the property owner’s details and have offered to provide them but nobody is interested in taking them, it is all about getting info from my wife in a form that is impossible to provide.

If anyone ever asks I can only say, avoid Ovo at all costs.  I’m actually really relieved that SSE were not installing new meters so we don’t have to deal with Ovo in our new property.

Thanks all for the responses

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

Hi,

Please talk to Collections about this one. 0800 069 9831

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?

Hi,

Your options are listed at https://ovoenergy.com/feedback. Please review the entire page carefully first.

1 reply 

0 views

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

Thank you

I did. My judgement after doing so is that one of the options on that page is the one you’re after. I cannot reply to a thread without viewing it first - I don’t have that ability.

The 0 Views thing doesn’t normally happen. I have a trick to try and fix that. That’s going straight to the forum provider to dig into.

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.

The view counter has been fixed and appears to be working now.

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. 

I’ve got a flat which has prepaid meter which was left with a small credit on for the new tenants 

out of the blue a final statement arrived to me not the letting agent? 
no one at OVO any help

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.

Hi @Paul m 

Nukecad, one of our volunteers has left some really helpful advice already and has asked some questions that would help us get you to the right place as it’s quite difficult to get a full picture of what’s going on from what you’ve said.

Are you the landlord for the property and it’s usually a letting agency that deals with this or are you a new tennant.

It sounds like your details may have been found and attached to the account by our trace and search process.

If you could answer a few of the questions asked already, we’ll do our best to help.

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.

Hello everyone, I lived at a friend’s apartment briefly before getting my own place. My friend ended his tenancy around September and I moved to my new house around the same time. OVO has now opened an account in my name via trace and sent me a final bill. Even though I live at another address during this period.

I have since called and called OVO customer team and OVO collection team explaining to them. They agreed I am not liable and asked for evidence of my move-in date to the new house and I have provided my new tenancy agreement showing that i lived at another address during the period of the bill. I sent a total of 8 mails to OVO asking for an update since April 2024 till now. 
 

Sadly since April when i provided this documents, OVO has refused to respond and address this issue. This week I paid a visit to the old address and found a letter from OVO stating that they have sent my details to a collection agency. 
 

Can anyone advise on how to get OVO to reply my email and resolve this issue? The silence from them and now the collection agency is frustrating and affecting my day to day mental health.

thank you

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 - 

Thank you for your response. Customer care told me to call collection team and i have been able to reach them.

They finally found the document i sent via mail since April and i was informed that a trace and search reversal or so would be carried out and the debt cancelled as i am indeed not liable for the bill.

I would likely still follow up with calls to ensure this is fully resolved because tbh this experience made me lose trust in OVO.

many thanks for your help.

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.

Hi @Thatitan234, 

It’s great to hear some progress has been made with this. Please keep us updated.

I have owned my property for 12 years and had SSE/OVO until March 2023 when I cancelled the account, the meter was removed, and replaced by a new meter from British Gas who took over the provision of electricity.  It took me months to get Ovo to cancel my account properly with the correct final meter reading, and for them to actually collect the  meter.  Eventually they did, and it took me too many long calls and a formal complaint for them to calculate the correct final bill.  I thought this was it, but then I started to receive letters “to whoever is living in the property” and trying to bill for a certain amount that was owed.  I ignored these letters because as far as I was concerned I have cancelled the account with the meter removed, and had paid up to the last penny. Also, I had a technician coming to check the meter reading for OVO, which was strange as I clearly am on British Gas now and with a new meter from 18 months ago! Well, last week we received a letter addressed to my son from Ovo…  Ovo basically created a new account to the address and put my son as the account holder!!  I called and they refused to speak to me as I was not the account holder (an account that shouldn’t exist), despite being the property owner.  Then my son called and they asked him for proof of tenancy or something to proof that he should not be the account holder.  This is outrageous and also illegal from a GDPR perspective.  My son had never in his life spoken to Ovo nor authorised them to open an account in his name!  They explained they use a system used “trace and search” by which they link the account to a name.  I assume they got his name from the electoral registry.

So we have two big problems here: 
1) We need to have my son removed from this account which should have never existed.  This is extremely unfair for a 20 year old who can get his credit record affected.  He should not have to provide any information whatsoever.  Who does Ovo think they are to ask for private information to someone who has never spoken to them nor want their services?
2) Ovo needs to realise they don’t provide electricity to this property any more to this property since March 2023, and that they removed the meter, and that I have paid the last penny up to the last meter reading before it was removed.  If they don’t do this, I fear they will come after my daughter next when she turns 18 next year, through their “trace and search” system.

If anyone reading this has children, they will understand that Ovo has crossed a line.  Mistake after mistake, hours of my time… but now jeorpardising my children’s future?? No that wil lnot happen.  I am thinking about taking this story to the Daily Mail, they will love this.