Why am I receiving bills for previous occupiers?

Hey @Rosita, 

@Nukecad has given a great response above regarding the different scenarios depending on to whom the letters are addressed. 

​The only thing I would add is that if you haven’t called and spoken with our Collections Care team yet, I recommend doing this. If you’ve only emailed us so far, the system won’t know which account to allocate the emails as you won’t have an active account. The Collections Care department can search using your email address and ensure this is updated. You can reach them by calling 0800 069 9831. They’re open Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm, and Saturday, 9am-2pm. 

I hope this helps you! 

Thank you kindly for the above responses. I have phoned on several occasions and emailed, plus emailing the complaints department. My husband I are just going around the same cycle. I note from other comments that I read on this site that others have had the same issues. I keep being told the issue will be resolved on receiving proof and then a few weeks later another bill arrives with my name on it. If anyone has any direct way of breaking this cycle, happy to follow advice. Thanks 

Unfortunately until they have done all that is required to able them to proceed to court and chase the actual debtor then they will have to keep doing it.

The process must be completed before they can apply to the court for a debt enforcement order..

At least if you know just why it is happening then you can stop stressing about it, and simply send the letters back to them.

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It is actually a consumer protection measure -it is meant to ensure that a company can’t simply take someone to court for a debt without their knowledge.
They have to first give the debtor a chance to pay, and then warn them that they are actually going to court.

Even when the creditor knows that the debtor is no longer living where they are sending the letters to, and so is never going to reply, they have to go through that consumer protection process to be able to start court proceedings.

Even if they know that the the property is stood empty they still have to go through it all in order to be able to chase the debtor in court.

Even if you can prove that you are not the debtor they still have to go through it all in order to be able to chase the debtor in court.

So there is really nothing that you can do to stop that process, it will only stop when they have done what they need to do to be able to then take the debt/debtor to court for an enforcement order.
(Or if they find/get a new address for the debtor in the meantine, in which case they will have to start again, sending the required letters there).

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Hey @Rosita,

I’d recommend calling the number for Collections Care I mentioned above and letting them know you’ve taken ownership of the property. You’ve emailed in the documentation needed, but you still receive letters from them. Once they have enough evidence that the debt isn’t yours, they can stop the letters from being sent to that address. If the letters come from a debt collection agency, it would be the same process and isn’t something you should worry about. I went through this when I bought my house a couple of years ago with an outstanding debt that was owed. It took a bit of time, but once they’re satisfied that person doesn’t live in the property anymore, they’ll look at other avenues or trace them. 
 
@Nukecad is correct, though. When it comes to debt, there are processes in place to ensure that debtors have a sufficient chance to address the balance before further action is taken.

…and possibly check with Experian or any of the big three credit reference agencies that your address isn’t associated with any other bad debts from its previous lives? 

Experian: https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html

TransUnion: https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou

Equifax: https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report.html

Please use these EXACT links to ensure you don’t get charged for something that’s free.

Hi, Here are the details of my issue:

I Moved In: 01 July 2024

Previous Tenant Moved Out: 30 June 2024

I successfully set up my OVO Account with a meter reading early July and have been paying ever since. I also told OVO in July about the letters for the previous tenant

Also Since then I have continued to receive OVO letters addressed to the occupier regarding the final bill for the OVO Account of the previous tenant that is completely different to mine. Now I see that it is being sent to Debt Collectors.

What do I do? Will this affect me? Will the debt collectors charge me? I am so confused and I have no Idea why OVO arne’t addressing this.

It isn’t that much of an unusual situation following a house move to get bills for a previous tenant/owner, usually just addressed to ‘The Occupier’.

There are legal reasons why it happens.

See this thread from a week ago where I explain why it happens and how to deal with it:

Hey @Ironwarrior887, 

I can see @Nukecad has already linked you to a helpful article where they explained this in more detail. It isn’t something that you need to worry about as you’re only financially liable from when you get the keys to the property. If you like I can merge this thread with the existing one so we can keep this all under the same area and try and offer as much advice as we can?