Can OVO back-bill me further than 12 months due to errors?

Thanks for explaining, that’s really helpful to understand. 

Hi ​@RMC90 

Another volunteer helper here,

Firstly I have to note that the back billing principle can be a tricky one to interpret.
It isn't simply a case of being "can't bill for more than 12 month ago" that many people think it is.
Depending on circumstances sometimes a company is allowed to validly bill for more than 12 months ago.

Let's see if we can work out what is going on here, and importantly just who these letters are from.
Sorry for so many questions to start with, but the answers will help us to help you:

PS. Please don't post any personal details, account numbers, addresses etc. you don't want those to be visible to everyone.

So you left OVO 2-years ago, is that right or was it later and they backbilled?
When you were with OVO were you Pay As You Go, Pay Monthly (Direct Debit), or Pay on Demand?

Two years later, I receive a letter with a final bill and back billing write off for £54.
 

Did that Final Billing have a zero balance, or did it still show an amount due after the back billing write off had been applied?

Then another letter stating we owed £34.45 - I searched the forum and the numbers on the letter were being discussed as a potential scam as they don’t align with the phone number advised in this forum.

You say that the phone number on the letter doesn't look right, so you are correct to be careful and not call them.
Could you tell us what that number was, so someone can check if it's genuine or not?
There are some contact numbers that are for special teams directly, so those are not widely published.

Was this 'dodgy number' just on the demand for £34.45?
Was that demand letter from OVO or from someone else 'acting on behalf of OVO'?

You then say that you tried calling support but it was closed - was that on the 'dodgy looking' phone number, or an the generally available support number,
 

For now - Don't worry about Debt Collection Agencies at this stage, and if they do get involved then I have very effective advice on how to deal with them in different circumstances.

Hey ​@RMC90 

I’m sorry for the stressful experience you’ve had

Nukecad has provided some really helpful information here. Please pop back if you have any further questions once you’ve spoken to the support team.

Why is it ovo can ignore the Back Billing Code and demand payment from 2024

Hi ​@shinyton

If you give more information another customer might be able to suggest what to do?

There are  a lot of experienced people on the forum 

The back billing rules are part of the “Standard Licence of Supply” and are quite complicated.

It is not as simple as some people would have you believe.

You will often hear or see something like: ”Suppliers can't bill for more than 12 months back”.

However that is a vast over-simplification of the full rules  and is just not true in a lot of cases.

eg. If the supplier had previously billed (taken recovery action) but hadn't billed enough, or the bills had been ignored, or ….. then they can still bill/chase more than 12 months later.

eg2. If the customer had been paying something, but not enough, then they can still bill/chase for the shortfall more than 12 months later. (That includes DD payments that were too low).

We would need to know more details to be able to offer an opinion on any particular case.

(PS. I know quite a bit about it because I personally won a back-billing case against an electricity supplier. I won because they had not billed at all for a number of years despite me regularly telling them so. They then tried it on in a ‘final bill’ 10-months after I moved house and left them. It took another 3-½ years for them to stop chasing me though, even after the Ombudsmans ruled in my favour it still took them 2 years to accept that ruling and stop trying).

Hey ​@shinyton 

I’m glad to see a couple of our community members have already stopped by with some really helpful advice and questions here. Some more information about the situation would be handy to understand what’s happened or what caused the need for a back bill in the first place?

Nukecad left some really helpful information about the back billing processes, but I thought I’d share the following handy article too:

Nukecad also mentioned that the back billing rules are part of the Supply Licence, these rules are set by Ofgem, you can find out more here on the Ofgem page.

If you’d be able to give us some more information around the situation, we’ll do our best to make sure you’re heading in the correct direction with this.