No ive never had a bill i movec in 10 years ago and inherited the key meter.( scottish power ) I topped it up every week until.it stopped working 6 years ago there wasn't ever a debt on the meter  ...Not sure the last reading is correct or if it's still been working with the blank screen ...The 12 month estimated  bill (£1300) i received in June this year is the first bill I've ever received...

I’m not sure then but I can’t see how they can back bill if you asked to get the meter replaced several times and it wasn’t. 
Citizens Advice might be useful - they have guidance about asking for any bill to be corrected. 
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/template-letters/letters/energy-letters/complain-to-a-supplier-about-back-billing/

They said unless I had a smart meter ( which I don't want ) I would start recieving estimated bills ,which I've now paid ( past 12 months ) I don't know how there could be such a big imbalance in readings anyway. 

I've emailed them, but they have replied saying they don't have any details of my email address ,even though it's how I've received and paid the bills .

Thanks for your reply 

I’m a bit puzzled about how the account was apparently moved from Scottish Power to OVO if no meter readings were available?
A PAYG account with debt outstanding can be moved to a different company, but closing/opening meter readings would still be required.

Do you mean SSE rather than Scottish Power?

The exceptions to the 12 month back-billing principle can get quite complicated, as already said.
(They are quite clear, but do leave room for suppliers to (mis)interpret them).

One thing that I would note though is that it generally applies with billing sent to credit customers, not PAYG customers who usually get 'statements' not ‘billing’..
However from my reading of the back billing condition (Condition 21BA of the Standard Conditions of Supply) then as the lack of accurate meter readings, and accurate meter charging, was beyond your control then the principle should still apply.
I do still have some slight doubt though about just how the payments put on the PAYG meter may be regarded.
(Are they "Charge Recovery Action"? if so then that may trigger an exception.
And if there was a debit on the account then they could be seen as such, if only recovery in part.
I’d suspect that a supplier would argue that they were).

Being Practical:

1. Your first step is to query the billing in light of the back-billing principle
2. Then if they won't change it make a formal complaint to OVO that they should apply the 12-month back-billing principle.
3. If they still won't budge then after 8 weeks, or their refusal and a 'Deadlock' letter, you can go to the Ombudsman who will make a ruling on whether the principle applies in your case or not.

The process can and will all take time, (been there, done that, won my own back-billing case against a supplier), but the supplier should put on hold any recovery actions while the complaint/dispute is ongoing.

Hi @Ellgar70,

I’m really sorry to hear this.

Our forum volunteer has already given some great advice here.

It may be worth reaching out to the Pay As You Go Support team on 0330 175 9669. They’re available Mon-Fri 8am to 8pm and Sat-Sun 9am to 5pm. They’d be able to look into this further for you. 

These threads might also be helpful:

Yes sorry SSE ,I've never been in any debt just always paid in advance until the screen went blank .I had somebody call to read the meter in June this  year he arranged for the meter tails to be updated but informed me nothing could be done about the meter. A few days later I received my first bill in 6 years ( estimated)  I didn't know I had switched companies and there was no way of reading the meter 

Thank you for  your advice you've been very helpful 

Thanks for clearing that up, it explains how the account got transferred to OVO.

All I’d add is to be grateful that it wasn’t Scottish Power.

That’s who I had my own back-billing dispute with after I had moved house and left them (for SSE as it happened).
Long story but despite the Ombudsman ruling over a year ago that (the majority of) their back-billing was invalid, they are still trying to  chase the invalid amount. They had gone totally silent following the ruling, but last month instructed a Debt Collection firm to collect it.
I soon saw the DCs off, but as you can imagine neither myself nor the Ombudsman are happy that they have now apparently ignored his ruling and directions. So it’s ongoing for now.
(but I have the ombudsman on my side and Scottish Power are not getting another penny out of me. They are even too late now to validly bill for what they could have done if they had followed his original directions at that time).

They are the worst firm ever ...My emails have bounced back as they don't recognise my email address ( that's how I received the bills in the first place ) after another half an hour on the phone and resending the emails I received a call saying I have 2 accounts and owe another £300 possibly for gas but the caller wasn't sure .

I do have a  gas account with them but again I've never been in any debt   and have a pre payment meter that works fine and always in credit , that meter works perfectly .Impossible ! 

Surely if you have received a bill then the account number that it relates to is on that bill?

but the caller wasn't sure .

Which sounds very much like a common thing seen (or rather heard) with all telephone support lines everywhere.

Telephone support agents are trained to never, or only very rarely, say “I don’t know” - so when they don’t know they are put on the spot and will often trot out whatever they can think of as a ‘possible’ explanation even when it is nothing more than a wild guess on their part.

Go to step 2 above- Make a formal complaint by email.
When you make a formal complaint then I strongly suggest that you insist that everyting is done by email or letter from now on and refuse to discuss your complaint over the phone.
That does 3 things,

• It gives you time to calm down and not say things in anger. Write your complaint. put it aside for a while, before sending read and edit it to remove angry comments, rants, etc.so that it is just the facts of your complaint.
• It gives them time to think and to check things before replying.
• It gives you written evidence of your complaint and their replies. So if you later have to escalate to the Ombudsman you have it all to show them.

(It’s something that I always do when complaining to any company about anything).

Thanks i will .They keep calling me but are reluctant to email but I will insist from now on …

I've never received any bills( I used to get yearly statements from the old company ) I don't receive bills as both meters are pre payment  The only bill I've ever received in 10 years is the one estimated for the back year for the faulty electricity meter that stopped working 6 years ago 

Thank you for your advice .

I was meaning the demand for (back) payment - surely that has an account number on it that the payment relates to?

I always regard that as simply: reluctant to put anything in writing so that it can be referred to later.

If/when you make a formal complaint then you have the right to ‘require’ that they answer in the manner that you prefer.

I usually put this, or similar, near the top of complaint emails.
Then stick to it and if they do call politely tell them them I’ve required email contact only and am hanging up, say no more and hang up.

PLEASE NOTE: I require that any further communications regarding this matter should be made by email to the originating address of this email, or by written letter to my current home address which you already have.
Please do not attempt to contact me by telephone, either by mobile or landline, any such attempted contact will be rejected.

Its all just been phone calls so far .

The first call to them was to pay the £1300 years electricity  estimated bill I gave them the up to date meter reading as the electricity meter is working again after 6 years ...They said the last reading they had was over 16000 units  less than it is now .The engineer that came before told me the meter was in free mode and not reading whilst blank 

I said even if it had been working I am only liable for the past year as i hadnt been billed They said I couldn't prove it wasn't for the last year ( presuming I didn't use any electricity for the other 5 years?? )  

The second call was after my email and the caller said there was an outstanding gas account and they would look into it .

I really don't think they have any idea of what they are doing.. I was passed over to the new company without and knowledge and like you said without any meter readings ..

I will copy and paste that thank you 

Hey @Ellgar70,

This sounds like a very stressful situation, 

Our Community Members have given some helpful advice here. There are back billing guidelines that need to be followed. 

You can find out more about the complaints procedure here. 

Please keep us posted with how you get on. 

I am sorry but ovo does not really follow up this rule properly, i was sent a backdated bill of thousands of pounds and it took me having to raise an official complaint to make them address and provide me some compensation, so they pretty much put the onus on the customer to have to raised a complaint because when we follow through to contact ovo and send meter readings, they just get ignored

Hi @pinkfloyd198,

I’m sorry to hear this.

If the backdated charges were over 12 months then you wouldn’t need to pay them. Raising a complaint would have been the right thing to do in this situation.

Do you submit your meter readings through the app?

Thanks, I don’t need to anymore cause it appears smart meter readings are regularly being submitted now, I have also emailed the hello address Friday, the ball is really in the billing departments court now

Hi @pinkfloyd198,

If an official complaint has been raised then someone should be in touch with you as soon as possible to help resolve this for you. It may be worth contacting the Support team by phone or webchat to get a quicker update on your complaint. 

Here’s more information about our complaints process: 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

thanks Shads, the balance appears to have been updated last night, just before the new energy rates today which helps! thanks again :)

Happy to hear that this has been sorted for you, @pinkfloyd198. Please let us know if you have any further issues.