SEEKA access request?

Good evening ​@thereturn ,

You need to respond to those contacts I’m afraid, regardless of whether everything else is working or not.

Seeka is a revenue protection company who specifically target energy theft related matters and it sounds like you’re on their radar for some reason. They can force entry if required because they’re delegated that ability from OVO - a court order or warrant is all it takes.

They need to see the Meter(s) in person to verify things that cannot be done remotely. There isn’t an option to do it without a site visit.

Worth noting that they’re part of MGroup - the same group who own Morrison Data Services which is another service provider OVO has contracts with. The difference, however, is that they serve different functions:

• MDS: Meter Reader checks and data validation stuff
• Seeka: Revenue Protection and Energy Theft

You’re better off engaging with them and doing it the easy way. If you satisfy them, I suspect they’ll disappear pretty fast.

I am unable to comment further than that on the reasons they’re trying to engage with you. If you want to understand more about the specific reasons why a Revenue Protection visit has been requested, please contact OVO directly for further assistance.

That is not strictly correct.

If you are in a rental and your meter is not located in that rental, eg. if it's in a shop below/next to your flat, then they cannot force you to have a PAYG meter that you are unable to top up manually if needed.
They can still fit a PAYG in such circumstances with your agreement.
Note that even a PAYG smart meter may need manual access to enter the top-up code at times.

However they can still get a warrant to force entry to wherever the meter is located to inspect it and/or replace it with a new meter if needed.
(And you would be responsible to pay for any damage they might cause when forcing entry).

Plus; if they mistakenly get a judge to grant a warrant to force access to your flat  to inspect the meter (mistakenly because the meter isn’t actually there) that warrant will allow them to force access although they couldn’t then do anything other than check that the meter is not there.

Contact SEEKA and communicate with them, the sooner the better.
If you don’t then you are simply making things potentially more awkward for yourself.

Something else to think about here - If the meter is not in your flat then how can you be sure that sombody else hasn’t tampered with it?

Hi ​@thereturn 

I’m glad to see a couple of our community members have already stopped by with some really helpful advice here. 

If you’ve not done so already please reach out to them, or our Support Team about this as soon as possible.

hopefully I do this right, thank yo for your replies.

​@Blastoise186 
Thanks for your reply. Respectfully, need is a strong word. Even more so in bold ;)

Appreciate your explanation though. The communal area isnt my property, regardless of my rented unit. They wouldnt need to enter my actual home, its not going to get to that anyway. I’ll show the meter.

Are there less serious reasons they would send Seeka out?

Its all a little threatening though, isn’t it?
I have a debt on my meter, Im in an arranged payment with it and always pay my actual current usage straight away so its always going down. Its a small debt.

When I first moved in there soon were problems with my my meter, or more BOOST in general. We’ve discussed that before, at length under various circumstances. My PAYG meter had a “debt” of £1200+ which took nearly a year to rectify. Which I did.

Hence my trepidation and interest. I dont trust OVO. I will endeavour to contact OVO shortly :)


​@Nukecad
Thank you for the insight. I cant be sure the Meter hasnt been tampered with, its in a communal area within the property.

My meter is a PAYG smart meter already, It used to be on BOOSTs systems, Apollo? Now Im paying monthly via OVO, I even finally got access to my online account very recently and have even more recently managed to get on top of my payments in agreement with OVO.

There are many occasions I could refuse SEEKA entry, for their safety for instance, accessibility issues, vulnerability etc, I doubt any would apply in my specific situation though so I guess thats redundant. My point is more, theyre not breaking into my home but someone elses, which Im still unsure on but I’m not gonna escalate to that situation. 

I’m deffo not stealing but I’m a little wary of OVOs incompetance and dont want their errors causing me 14 months of aggravation, back and forth, just stress in general.

​@Abby_OVO 
Thanks Abby, that link isnt particularly useful Im afraid. Could do with a streetmap rather than an atlas if you know what I mean.

In regards to the other members comments, I have a few questions.
My account used to be PAYG but is now monthly debitted, the meter was never changed over or updated or anything physically. Can my account be “downgraded” back to PAYG remotely?

More importantly, what happens to Me if my meter has been tampered with by someone? 

This is not debt related.

Seeka has engaged because of revenue protection reasons. Long story short, possible energy theft, fraud or tampering risks have been identified and need to be looked into.

AFAIK you can't refuse to engage with them. They will ultimately get the job done one way or another. Its easier for everyone if you’re willing to work with them rather than against them.

If everything looks good after their inspection, you'll probably never hear from them again. You might get a letter or something saying that no further action is being taken and/or the file is being closed - but that’d just be for your convenience.

If a problem is identified, it will be resolved by appropriate means, such as making necessary repairs to at least make things safe. I’m not sure I’m allowed to comment further on exactly what happens after that.

The Gas Act 1986, Electricity Act 1989 and Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act 1954 override your tenant rights such as Right to Quiet Enjoyment. OVO has the legal right to access their equipment for the purposes of inspection, installation and repair as needed.

Hey ​@thereturn,

Abby’s not around as she’s taken some time off so i’ll answer your questions. 

Switching a customer back to Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) involves several steps, and we want to give you as many chances as possible to work with us before we reach that point. It usually starts with our  Collections team reaching out to you. If we can’t find a solution together, we may ask a debt collection agency to contact you on OVO's behalf.

If they're also unable to come to an agreement, the final option for us would be to apply for a warrant to change or replace the meter to PAYG without your consent. We really want to avoid this scenario, as our goal is to reach a mutual agreement about any outstanding debt. If you're looking for more information about how we handle these situations, feel free to check out the OFGEM website. 

If you're looking for more information about meter tampering, check out the article below! It has plenty of helpful links and contact details that you might find useful.

I hope this helps!  

 thanks for your replies. Im very grateful and I dont want this getting out of hand.

​@Blastoise186 

Hey, thanks for your continued support.

Im not avoiding the sitch or creating excuses for myself, I cant deal with this until the weekend
Ive not been in this situation before so iit wasnt necessarily important to know but maybe good for me to learn about right now lol.

Im a little aware of the 1989 legislation and the 2000 amendment. But yeah, I dont think in my situation I could refuse or continue to ignore. I mean Its only been 2 weeks right now. Im trying to gather all of the infos on all this lol Its all really weird, OVO haven't contacted me, these guys have just turned up and are now threatening to break in. 
Its kinda unprofessional and I feel its underhanded. It would be remiss of me not to use diligence is all, I have to ask.

Surely Seeka thinking that theres theft is a fairly last resort kinda situation,  I havent tampered with the meter and Id be really surprised if someone has.
What could cause an error that would flag my meter up?

I guess Im a little dubois of OVO too, theyre always messing or rather struggling with my account since the BOOST switchover. Like just leave me alone man, you know?

​@Chris_OVO 

Hey Chris, nice to meet you again!

It was you that, pretty much instantly, got me access to my online OVO account a few months ago something the guys at BOOST/OVO hadn’t managed over 3 years!

You maybe recognise why I have such trepidation here? This isn't the first time my life's been kinda  flipped upside down completely out of the blue, through no fault of my own by OVO ultimately (like MONTHS on months later) in error. Its exhausting man.

Thank you for explaining the meter switching thing.
As Blastoise mentioned, chances are this isn't debt related but its information I wanted to become more familiar with.

My usage hasn't gone up or down, my meters are communicating fine and accurately (loop, IHD and my OVO account all match), OVO have mistakenly tried overcharging me in the past and I don't want them trying to install a faulty meter. OVO encounter a lot of problems. My account has always had weird issues. 
Is my smart meter payg capable already? The smart meter in my home hasnt changed, my PAYG account became a credit account a few years ago with OVO but still half connected to my BOOST payg account. I wonder that OVO may fear I wont pay a debt Ive accrued within their timescale to put myself in credit so are trying to skip to giving me an old key meter, do they still exist?

Im adamant the meter isnt faulty, what else would they need a meter reading for?
Doesnt seem to be anything wrong with it I cant think of any reason for a visit from Seeka.
I am paying an agreed, with OVO, amount.
Ive literally just started paying it back again this last period, I missed a payment previously.
One week after Im back on track and theres all this lol
I tried increasing my DD through the online portal last night actually but it wouldn't accept what I could afford. Regarding that, Im just trying to get the balance to 0 not +. Don't really know why that's up to them?

 

I can only call OVO at the weekend so obviously Im a little nervous my landlords door is gonna be in bits one day I come home this week. I hope they can come on a weekend or evening or something. Seeka coming whilst Im at work is kinda forcing me to "ignore" them so then they may have to break in.
If it came to that, I have to pay for all that?
What happens if there is no fault, or if Ive actually been overcharged. Is that something that could happen? 

As Ive touched on with Blastoise, Im surprised OVO haven't just reached out before sending in the heavies. My usage hasn't wavered, my devices and OVO accounts all match, Im paying on time. 

Hey ​@thereturn, 

I remember getting you access; it was a huge success at the time!

I completely understand your concerns about these matters. Typically, when it comes to enforcement, the approach can be a bit more abrasive. It's a fine line between stressing the importance of communication and providing customer support. However, to ease your mind, we wouldn’t switch a customer to PAYG without following very specific steps, as we discussed previously. These steps ensure that the process is conducted legally and fairly for both us and the customer. We will always strive to collaborate with customers in order to achieve a positive outcome together.

I can see that this situation has you feeling a bit anxious. To be honest, if you have been making your repayment agreement on time, as you mentioned, and there haven’t been any significant changes, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. This could simply be a routine inspection that is conducted from time to time.

If the meter for your property is located on your landlord's premises, I recommend starting a conversation with Seeka. Explain your concerns and express your desire to work together to achieve a positive outcome. I believe they would be willing to arrange a date for you, your landlord, and Seeka to read the meter, allowing you to move on from this situation. Seeka should also be able to tell you the reason for the visit if you ask them.

You could also contact our collections team to inform them that Seeka is coming out for a revenue protection visit. Ask them if this visit was instructed by OVO for a specific reason, especially since you believe you have been adhering to your payment agreement. They should be able to review our records to see if anything is amiss on our end.

Please keep me updated on your progress, and we can work through this together. As of now, based on your knowledge, everything seems to be in order, and this should just be a routine inspection.

You have to remember that these kinds of letters tend to get straight to telling you the worst that might happen,

It doesn’t mean that you are anywhere near that worst point at all.

There’s no leading up in gentle stages, just a straight “If you don’t do XXX (now) then (eventually) ZZZ might happen”,

Note that there will always be an “If” stated or implied; and thit it will always say ‘might happen’ or ‘could happen’ or similar.

Yes such letters can seem heavy handed, and even threatning - But they are clear and you can’t turn round later and reasonably say that you were never warned what might eventually happen if you didn’t do XXX when asked.

PS.

There are many occasions I could refuse SEEKA entry, for their safety for instance, accessibility issues, vulnerability etc, …….

Not if things have got to the stage where they have a court issued warrant that allows them to force entry you can’t.
If you obstruct them from carrying out the court warrant then they will simply return with police officers, (they may have brought the police anyway if they expect that there may be obstruction).
if you still insist in obstruction then you will be arrested; and they will enter anyway.

Sensible people do not let things get anywhere that situation.

​@Chris_OVO 

I was, and still am, so grateful for that! Thanks again.

Of course, I appreciate they want to be taken seriously and that requires a certain tone and urgency.

Its just a bit hectic.

You mention "significant changes", could you share what those could be?

I haven't been provided with contact info for Seeka, just OVO. 0330 3035 063. (the voicemails being left was some weird unrelated spam caller)

A routine inspection is fine, they have to visit once a year don't they? 
They wouldn't bust a door down for a meter reading, surely? (hypothetically)

I've not had a letter in a few days so hopefully I can get out a bit earlier tomorrow and keep OVO on the phone.

The agreement thing, I've agreed to pay what I can and OVO have accepted that. Shouldn't that be enough?

Really appreciate your time here Chris!

 

​@Nukecad 

No, I don't think I am at the final demand point but Blastoise was fairly adamant it IS the most serious point atm. I mean, I cant send a meter reading can I?

No, once we’re at the superlative Im effed but, again, it has to be at that stage. If they broke in and it was stil unsafe and unaccessbile, not barricaded by the occupier they would obvs have to come back when its safe. I’m not even looking at this from the tenants pov, there could very well be visits to unoccupied homes. Meters can be faulty for a myriad of reasons. If the LL still avoided them they would just get a bill from whomever did make it safe for Seeka. 

Im mentioning that sort of stuff as there is very little information online. Its all very spread out, lots of fear mongering and chest puffing from idiots talking about common law and the rest.
A reddit post, a random blog post somewhere else, a couple of old articles about SSE or OVO..
Since I have created this post, even on private browsers and VPNs my thread is frequently the top hit when Im searching for info. So in discussing things around this situation (albeit not necessarily relevant to MY situation) Im hoping to help spread knowledge.

Im asking questions to help me and future people understand the nuances and blah blah around this issue. This is a public forum, a public resource not a private convo. 

Theres zero transparency coming from Seeka and OVO atm, You guys have very kindly filled in a lot of blanks. Volunteers, not the professionals.

Certainly not advocating to mess Seeka about and gamble your front door lol.

I am being sensible, Im addressing the matter using diligence, sharing my experience in detail in order to help others and hopefully on Monday I can post: ALL DONE

:)