Are you sure the FIT system was included in the sale? I understood in the past that although the panels would remain on the property, the income could remain with the original purchaser of the system although obviously the new owner of the house would have the benefit of using the generated electricity. So I thought the receipt of the FIT payments would have to be specified in the house sale agreement.

Hey @Simon Beare 

I’m with MarJiethelonghouse on this, as it’s definitely not an automatic process of changing the solar set up into your name, it’ll be a good idea to check that the FiT account is either in your name now (if the Change of Ownership forms have been completed), or part of the sale agreement, double check you now own the solar set up as part of the house buy, and we can get things set up so that the payments come to you.

Ideally, we’d expect you to have filled out the forms to have the set up moved into your name to then begin claiming payments from generation. I’ve attached the Change of Ownership forms below if you need to fill these out, but I’d recommend checking the details of the deal that was made first to be sure.

https://www.ovobyus.com/m/125373f9a36d2032/original/change-of-ownership-form-1-compressed-1.pdf

Hi. 

I own the freehold of the property including the solar panels which were included at point of sale. 

I have completed the change of ownership forms, provided proof of ID, proof of purchase of the property, proof of ownership via the Land Registry and proof of solar panels being in situ at point of sale. 

The previous owner emails the estate agent asking when she can be released and when will I be taking over ownership. She advises that she has an ever increasing sum of money in her account that should be in mine. 

OVO need to stop dragging their feet and get on and process the forms I have completed. So that the seller can move on with her life and I can have monies which my solar panel system on the roof of my house has generated for me. 

Good luck……

I had my FIT scheme changed from SSE to OVO. This meant months and months of delays in receiving my first payment. However now the system has been in place for a few months the new system of asking for meter readings and receiving payments seems to have settled into a routine. OVO do not pay at the beginning of each quarter as SSE did but pay nearly at the end of each quarter. Distinct lack of sufficient numbers of support staff seemed to be the issue……….. it should all come good in the end.

Hi all,

I moved into a new property in June 2023 and retained Ovo as the supplier (they supplied the previous owners). The property has solar panels, which were owned outright, detailed in the fixtures & fittings and included in the sale.

When signing up at the beginning of June, I was provided the change of ownership forms, filled them in and sent off all the supporting documentation. We are now 4+ months on and progress has been extraordinarily frustrating, with nobody able to provide *any* kind of update or prediction on how long it will take for my ownership forms to be processed - “I don’t know how long it will take - it’s the back office - and I couldn’t say how long you will have to wait - maybe try calling back in a month?” is the typical response along with “Email the FIT team”, which has to be the most pointless piece of advice I’ve EVER been given.

Anyway, until today, I’ve had a problem with my inverter which meant I wasn’t generating anything anyway, so the ownership transfer was just a side matter. I’ve now got a new inverter and am generating for the first time, so I have a couple of questions (remember I’m a complete and utter novice on this - I’ve just inherited these panels via the property).

1. Now the panels are actually generating something, does this automatically mean I’ll be using less from the grid and should see my Electricity usage decline?  Is that how it works?
2. Other than the change of ownership saga, is there anything else I need to do to get the most out of this setup?  Any links, YouTube’s, etc. which anyone found useful as a novice would be really welcome.

Finally, if anyone has any advice on expediting my change of ownership (I personally think 4 months is plenty of time), please let me know. Hopefully it doesn’t involve calling 0330 303 5063 and selecting the non-existent option 4 . …

Thanks in advance.

Hi @TonyB-Dorset , you’ll get a few thoughts from the forum but bear in mind that it’s usually other users replying so we might all be restricted on what we can suggest. 
As long as your inverter is set up to feed the house before exporting, you should now be using less from the grid. 
Some of the third party apps are useful for monitoring and checking against previous usage if your IHD doesn’t help. 
 

I’ve not been through a change of solar ownership so can’t help with that

You might also be able to monitor your solar generation with an app from the inverter manufacturer 

@BPLightlog 

Thanks for the reply. I have a ‘mySolarEdge’ app which now shows signs of life. I guess I’ll just need to monitor my next few Ovo bills to see if I’m getting charged less than I was before today.

Oh no!!, this is worrying me, I bought a property at the end of August (previous owner had died 5 years ago, it’s been empty ever since) and I’d been assured that it was a very easy process to get it transferred.  I had numerous calls with them before I went ahead with the purchase.  So I duly sent in the forms and paperwork required, 6 weeks waiting… now “its with the back office, try again in 2 weeks” 
This isn’t comforting that their level of support is so poor.
6 weeks is more than long enough to process a change of ownership.  4 months is too long.  I can see in two weeks I’ll be raising a compliant if I don’t hear. 

My daughter bought my property where the solar panels were installed some years ago. Following form-filling, verifications, phone calls & e-mails, it’s now nearly a year & STILL the ownership of the solar panels & feed-in-tariff hasn’t been transferred from my name to my daughter’s!  When I eventually get through on the phone, I’m getting no help whatsoever.  Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Hi @JOP 

Welcome to the customer forum, I am just a customer like you although a regular poster.

I have flagged the OVO moderators as your issue has been going on over a year, in case they have any useful advice.

Hey @JOP,

Really sorry to hear this,

I’ll ask Forum_Support to reach out please keep an eye on your private messages. 

Keep an eye out here @JOP 

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview

If you get somewhere, please let me know. Seems like this is a common problem with OVO.

I submitted my change of ownership application on 10th August (almost 5 months ago) and I haven’t been able to get it sorted either. The change of ownership form states that the process could take up to 6 weeks!

I was asked to provide an alternative form of proof of ownership on 31st August, which I duly provided on 7th September. Since then I have heard nothing. I called on 30th October to ask for an update and was told they didn’t know why it was taking so long and my case would be escalated and someone would call me. I was provided an escalation number and have yet to receive that phone call (over 2 months have passed). I emailed the complaints department on 7th December but received no response other than an automated response claiming that they would try to respond within 2 days. I emailed their complaints department a few days later regarding an unrelated matter and received a response the next day, so it appears the FIT customer service team is non-existent. I’m now currently waiting for 8 weeks to pass from my complaint email before taking the matter to the energy ombudsmen. 

Yes!! I’ve only been waiting 6 months and I thought that was bad enough so well done for lasting a year! The FIT call centre is an absolute disgrace. They’re utterly incompetent and I get a different story every time I call! That’s if they don’t hang up on me first! That has happened several times and I think it’s because they haven’t a clue how to deal with me and instead of trying to help and deal with it they just hang up. I tried escalating several times and once got to speak to a so called manager/supervisor who was quite condescending and told me that it was all sorted out.. that was 3 months ago and it wasn’t sorted at all. Nobody ever gets back to me, I’ve lost count the amount of e-mails and calls pleading for somebody somewhere to actually call or even mail me to tell me what’s going on but I get the grand sum of ZERO back from anyone, it’s an absolute joke!

This is what happens when you outsource call centres though!

Hey @AyronC,

I’m sorry to hear of your frustrating experience, 

If you’ve raised a complaint, and they are unable to resolve your complaint within eight weeks, the next step would be the Ombudsman.

If you want us to check how the team has handled your complaint, you can ask for an internal review. You can do this at any stage of the process. Even if you’ve agreed to a solution with OVO, you might then decide it wasn’t the right one. You can contact OVO and ask for an ‘internal review’. 

You can find out about our full complaint procedure on the website. 

Hi All,

Like several of you here, I recently (02/10/23) moved into another property that has solar panels which were owned outright and came with the sale including a contract for FIT payments.  I sent off all the relevant documentation including a handwritten letter from the previous owner relinquishing ownership. To date I have heard NOTHING back from OVO even though we’ve made numerous phone calls, sent several emails and chatted online. Three months and counting. Like many of you we keep getting sent from pillar to post and no resolution.  Would it be possible to take a collective action against OVO or can anyone suggest where we can go from here; an energy Ombudsman?

Yours frustratingly and thanking you in advance 

Marcel Droog

Well, my last call was on 28/11 and I was told to “give it 4 weeks”. Being generous in nature, I’ll give it 8 and call them again at the end of January. That timeframe will bring me close to 8 months since sending my forms in with not a single useful update.

As for raising a complaint … I did that last year but the person who called me didn’t know what my complaint was about, then said they couldn’t help me, asked me if I wanted to raise a complaint about the poor handling of my complaint AND THEN suggested I email the FIT team (which just auto-replies to say how busy they are).

Honestly, I have never had the misfortune to deal with such an inept company in my life.

Same here.

sent my forms and proof of ownership, etc on 13/6/23 and have got absolutely nowhere.

I raised a complaint after about 3 months but the lady who called had no idea that my complaint related to FIT & Change of Ownership, so couldn’t help me other than suggest I email the FIT address which (as we all know) is just an auto-reply bucket.

I last called on 28/11 (after receiving an ‘escalation’ code) but got exactly the same experience of “can’t help”, “don’t know how long it’ll take” and “maybe call back in 4 weeks”. The guy couldn’t find my forms until I 1) told him the exact time & date of my email and 2) questioned whether he was trying to tell me Ovo had lost my personal information. Magically, he then located it (or so he said).

I’ve never dealt with such an inept, unfit for purpose and unhelpful “service” in my life and, what’s worse, is nobody seems responsible.

I will be at 8 months the next time I call, which is clearly unacceptable. What is the next step, do we think?

Tony, check my post from the other day.. It’s almost a carbon copy of your issues. Somebody on here - Abby_OVO arranged for somebody to contact me by private message and they said they would look into it..
 

We have changed ownership of our account back at the beginning of 2023 when we were still with SSE. We haven’t received any payment since we switched ownership of our account. When we call OVO they say they cant find us on their system and that the account is still in migration. We’ve been getting told this for months now and its getting frustrating. When we call to complain or chase things up noone ever gets back to us. Has anyone else had this same problem? how do we fix it? 

Hey @callum cruickshanks,

I’m really sorry to hear this,

Was the previous change of ownership with your old supplier successful? Did they confirm? 

Yes they have confirmed?

Thanks 

I purchased my property in October 2022 which had solar panels included in the sale. The previous owner had a FIT agreement with OVO so I completed the change of ownership form and sent the relevant supporting documentation. After 2 months I received an email saying there was missing documentation could I provide this. I done this and sent it back and heard nothing for another 4 weeks then got an email again saying there was missing information. This time I called and the girl on the phone told me what I had to do. I asked her was this the last thing I had to do and the reply was yes the application will now be processed. About 6 weeks later i got another email saying information missing. So I called again and again I was told this is the last bit and the application will be processed. I never heard anything for weeks so I called and they said the application was on hold because of missing information. They couldn’t tell me why and that there hands were tied all I could do was wait. A few weeks later I got an email saying I need to re do the application. I called again and was told I took more than 30 days to respond to an email. I then went through every email I had received and responded to on the phone. He said he would escalate it for me and further raised a customer complaint. This was in November I called again in December and was told they couldn’t tell me anymore and that all it said on the ticket was they would be in touch by the beginning of January. I have heard nothing. The FiT team on the phones are useless they can’t give you any information and they can’t put you through to anyone who can. They claim to have no contact thereslves with anybody else. It is the worst customer support I’ve ever came across. It’s now 2024 and I still haven’t managed to get the application sorted. 

I have spent months trying to complete a change of ownership through the Fits OVO team  (originally the SSE Fits Team)- I am in exactly the same situation as many other seemingly. My transfer took place on 25th July 23 & nothing has happened despite hours & hours of calls to South African call centre specific emails etc.
I am now (having made a complaint on 13th Dec & received no proper response ) awaiting 8 weeks to complain to the ombudsman. 
I would like to know if there is anything further that can be done as this team are answerable to no-one seemingly.
I am a property solicitor....& have provided everything that was required!
To whom can one escalate this issue?
Thanks very much

Hi Dibbles,

If it’s any consolation you are not on your own. We are in exactly the same boat.

I guess you problem is that you ara a NON SEGS customer and on the FIT’S Tarriff scheme as we are. It appears OVO do not want to integrate such customers into their system as it doesnt fit their “Backend system” so won’t provide a means to add export readings to your OVO account page. 

Like you we were migrated from SSE and the procesas has been underway for over a year and is still not resolved. 

Your best action will be to bring the Ombudsman into play and eventually we may be able to get OFFGem to review OVO’s  FIT licence maybe. WE are totally fed up with the whole situation, have been overcharged for power consumed and still do not have a method to recover VAT owed to us for energy we provided to OVO. 

They claim to be interested in Green Eergy but are alieanating the very people who provide it.

IT’s A shambles and no one on this Forum can help as it is not de rigeur to add complaints here it seems!