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

:)

A few hours ago I found Seekas website, I dont know if I can link to it to its but its just their name .co.uk.

There isnt much on there and you can only email them, they show the email if you dont want to use the form, Ive just asked them to reply with a contact number.
 

Why are you doing that rather than responding to the letters that you say you have received?

If those letters need a response from you then they will tell you how to do that, and there will be a deadline to respond by.
Doing anything else, ie. responding in a different way is just wasting time.

Lets take a step back here;

Reading back I note that you have never actually said what was in those letters.
You don’t say what they were telling you, or asking you to do.

Are they simply asking you to make an appointment for them to come round and look at the meters when it is convinient to you?

Or are they asking you to do something else?

Or are they just letting you know what they are going to do on a certain date? So don’t need a response.

@Nukecad 

“why are you doing that rather than responding to the letters”

The OVO number isnt available when Im available.

Chris_OVO suggested
“ If the meter for your property is located on your landlord's premises, I recommend starting a conversation with Seeka.”

I did manage to hide for an hour or before close today to get hold of OVO.
58 minutes, after being hold it took.
The number that I am told to ring I get a lad who has to relay everything I say to another department that I cant speak to.
They were more interested in reminding my about my DD, which I am paying and they acknowledge that. 

THAT is the waste of time.

Ive contacted OVO, Seeka, this forum and explained if Im not available they can try the LL and provided his contact, I have spoken with him too.
Im fully co-operating. What else should I do? Quit my job or close the entire venue for a day to wait for a 10 minute visit?

Furthermore, Seeka arent available for another 2 weeks and can only be available mon-fri during standard working hours.

But they need to conduct a Safety Check, urgently.
So am I in danger??

Speaking with my landlord, we have already had our meters checked.
They contacted him, his phone number is on the front door “for emergencies call 07xxx”
They, sorry, someone was already at the door. LL came and let them in.
They couldnt work out which was my meter, theyre labelled and they have possession of the MPAN

Please take my concerns a little more graciously. 

You’re right, I havent mentioned exactly what was in the 2nd more serious letter but I did say “ Past week or so Ive been having calls and have had two letters from SEEKA who just work on OVO’s behalf to get meter readings.”
Before starting this thread I believed they just wanted to check the meter which is fine but odd, theyve been out already. Maybe not Seeka but someone and with the the way theyre acting now and who they are Im glad Ive started this thread..

Im afraid I dont have the first letter, it was basically the same but without the warrant bit, a phone call on the same day too just to explain they need to check my meter is anyone in?
The second letter:

Just going through my emails etc to see if Ive had any correspondence.

There isnt, which suggests I should be in little danger of Seeka changing my meter.

Just a quick timeline so far

6th Oct I did receive an email reminding about a payment support plan having a week left to complete. 
This is something Ive already done, or at least thought I had regarding my £80 DD which went through on 1st Oct.

10th Oct, the first visit and phone call frim the private number. Letter from Seeka with ovo contact

13th Oct, 2nd visit no call this time and letter left is similar but more serious than the first. 

I miss spoke in my original post, the calll on the sunday was completely unrelated spam calling. It also was an 033 number but nothing to do with this.

21st Oct, started this thread

23rd Oct, contacted Seeka as advised on here

24th Oct, contacted OVO

Hmm…

Based on the letter, you need to talk to OVO, not Seeka to arrange the visit unless Seeka reaches out to you directly.

This doesn’t sound like a debt matter...

Hey ​@Blastoise186

Following the advice from this thread, Ive spoken to everyone.

Its not a theft matter either, its a billing/meter error. Chill with that lol

Ill try explain in my next post :)

Ive found the problem.

Ive got to eat my hat a little here.
My usage IS different. Well, at least according to the meter.

The devices I have on and how long theyre on hasn't changed, I don't use an electric heater anymore so that will have brought at least this month down noticeably.

I don't know if my bills are higher or lower as a result though, I don't know if my cost has gone up with rising costs or because of this. Last summer the months were £45 this summer more like £60, suppose Ill have to look into all THAT next then

This is what Ive found now Ive stopped panicking about the whole door and warrant thing

IN 2024
 summer, may to sept around 100kwh a month in 2024
 winter, from October to like feb, around 300kwh a month in 2024

 average 2.5-5kwh a day during the summer 
 8-10kwh a day in the winter months

IN 2025 
 summer, may to sept around 160kwh a month  
 and winter, from October, well I haven't got there yet but today Im at just over       150kwh and theres another 7 days left of the month.

There is no obvious daily average in 2025, stay with me…


in 2024 the days were super steady, just like the majority of the days in this bar graph. Jan 2025. You can see how steady it is until around the 24th Id say.

And this continues, the next two charts show months at the start of 2025. Look how dramatic it is.

Here I could compare the months for each year at the same time:

 

So the meter that used to show my kwh now looks like a seimic activity graph!
There does seem to be a pattern of Sundays being the most expensive day. But I’m not experimenting with a flux capacitor or anything.


Excuse my laziness, I asked ChatGPT for a summary.

 

So the letter demanding I let them in for some unknown reason SHOULD have been.

“Occupier, your meter is miscommunicating and could be costing you money, please arrange an apoointment with us soon” 

Heres an example:
similar bar chart to what I posted .jpg

I guarantee that would begin instant engagement rather than “open ya door or I break it in! er… er its SAFETY!!!” lmaoo

I dont care to hear the whys, I work to a very professional standard and OVO will be regulated to its own standards. We also have to deal with debts nad recovery. This whole thing has turned me into a headlesss chicken once the headless chickens from Seeka turned up!

Send an email, physical letter, text message or phone your customer. Not rent some jumped up 22 year old with a clip board and a smartphone to put the pressure on.

I havent done anything, OVOs meter has gone mental.
Dont threaten me over a simple error.

AGAIN!!!!

The one message Id like to get across to OVO is, just be transparent.

Its a problem thats been going on all year so Im not in danger, ergo no safety check needed.

Its not urgent until my usage drops below my expected, although I suppose someone has been out before over the summer but they soon gave up as they were obviously unequipped to do their job

No one has contacted me until the 10th of October. Maybe they tried contacting the LL, I dont know.

Im aware Im being snarky but what the hell do you expect? This is the language that OVO understand and engage with.

 

If you havent broken the law butI are being faced with a Seeka letter/visit, dont do what I did and ask here…

Have a cup of tea, first.

Then, check your account, look through the months and try and compare. At least to give you an idea of what might be going on.

Your IHD might not be accurate or “smart” enough to show these comparisons. You can only go back about 6 months though on the account.

I use a free app, Loop, this is very good but again you cant overlay the same month from different years like I did above.

When you contact the OVO number be prepared for a bit of to and fro, you wont speak to the people you need to, You wil get the SA call centre who will relay messages back to bristol asking for advice. I have posted the bristol number before but it was removed so I wont be doing that again.

I have posted that number a lot on the OVO/BOOSTfailing customers facebook page.

The UK number is really only for once you have a complaint number and case, then they deal with it over here. Im not recommending it but making people aware of it.

Seeka work 9-5 mon to friday only, so again be aware of that.
They arent instantly available and you should expect a 2 week wait for the next slot.
You can ask they call ahead so you can get back to your home if youre not in.
When they arrive they will annouce themselves and show you their ID, you can ask to look at it properly but lets be honest if the dude you arranged to come has come on time, in his branded uniform and van its unlikely to be an imposter. Best to be safe though, innit?

Ill update the time line when there is a reason to.

 

I don't use an electric heater anymore so that will have brought at least this month down noticeably.

And that may be why they want to inspect your meter.

A sudden drop in energy use could indicate that the meter has been bypassed.
(And bypassing any meter is a safety issue, no matter how it has been done).

Nobody is accusing you of anything, but if they have a concern they will want to check, and sooner rather than later.

And being honest: The more you delay then the more suspicious they are going to be that something ’iffy’ may be going on.

So yes, you do need to take this seriously and arrange a time when someone (not necessarily yourself) can let them in to inspect the meter.
If you don’t then it isn’t going to go away -T hey wiill get a court warrant and enter anyway, and you will be liable for any costs associated with them having to do that.

PS The letter is a standard type of warning letter they will send out if/when you have already missed appointments.
(It’s obviousy a standard pre-printed letter, it has spaces to write different names and numbers in as needed).

The wording is strong, but if you read it calmly you see that it’s not saying they are going to court, only that they might have to if you don’t agree to an appointment.

In orther words the letter is simply saying - Please contact us/someone and arrange for us to be able to inspect the meter.

PPS. They’ll need more than just a change in energy use before a judge will grant them a warrant. They’ll need to show a much stronger reason for suspicion than just that.
However failing to engage and allow them to  inspect the meter would be upping the suspicion level.

“If Access is not agreed and permitted …...”
then we have no other choice than to apply to a court for a warrent to enter without permission.
“If we obtain a Warrant, this will give us the right to enter your property and check your meter(s).”

 hey ​@Nukecad Ive contacted everyone. The delay is now in Seekas availability really, both me and the LL want this fixed before escalation. I imagine Ill find out Monday and we can get them round when they first offer :)

Ill update what the findings will be, lets move on from the conduct so far and lets just focus on;

“A sudden drop in energy use could indicate that the meter has been bypassed.

(And bypassing any meter is a safety issue, no matter how it has been done). “

 I suppose, yeah.
Remember they have been out earlier this year, I think they were probably aware of an issue before the start of Oct. I just want to explore that a bit.
I hope Im OK posting this next image, as its current, pls just delete it not ban me if not.

(On a side note, I think that OVOs pov there is a little ironic, we’re encouraged to save money by switching things off or whatever but clearly thats a double edged sword in some cases!)

Billing period is usually 22nd to 22nd I think? 
Sept was fairly on trend to last year and the drop is only slight here for the 10 days in oct.
OVOs resources are surely much better than mine but I dunno if that tiny drop now is the root cause of concern.

I think it has to be from much earlier in the year. I mean, look at it, man. I didnt post every month  but theyre all the same from Jan to now this year. Last year was flat this year its all over.
Shouldnt we expect a regular drop now Im trying to use less?
In that regard, when my meter may have beeb over reporting in summer, Im grateful OVO wanted to come out. If they’d had let me know then Id have been all over it with em lol

Its clear the meter has issues, which of course could mean tampering but doesnt rule out just general errors and issues with the hardware. I dont think Im in trouble or anything, obviously if something physical has happened to the meter Im worried Im the first flipping suspect but I dont want to put any energy into that anymore, at all.

With the previous visit being unsuccessful would they have records of that? I dont even know who “they” would be but Im unsure when anyone visited so that would be interesting to know. To gauge the length of the issues I mean. Suppose I could ask the LL but hes not gonna be as accurate I guess.

How could I ever prove my real usage over the past months?
Are OVO gonna ever contact me?
Its all a bit mad this.

Just a quick mention…

While myself and ​@Nukecad are not Forum Moderators ourselves, we do work closely with them and have a pretty good grasp as to what causes users to get banned (and what doesn’t).

As far as I can tell, I’m not seeing any behaviour from you that indicates a ban is required. You’re asking legitimate questions that need answers and that’s what the OVO Forum is designed and intended for. We never ask the Forum Moderators to even consider banning folks who genuinely need our help as we much prefer solving problems over making them worse.

Your situation is one that comes under the category of needing us more than ever, hence why we’re helping out as best we can. As long as you bear this in mind, I think we’re good to keep going. The BanHammer is powerful, but we don’t swing it unless we have to - and you don’t deserve to see if come out of the cupboard.

You deserve to get all the help we can offer, so please keep working with us and we’ll do what we can.

thanks ​@Blastoise186 Im grateful for the help!

We are trying our best to help from our different experiences of the odd situations that do happen.

Often we know, and have experience of,  things when they don't go like they should do.

And that's when help, or just some support, from people who understand what is happening may be needed

Your usage charts suggest that your consumption was being estimated until ~24 January 2025. After that, it looks as if actual smart data are being used, unless the OVO wizards suddenly found a better way of representing estimates. I find it difficult to say whether the alleged estimates were bigger or smaller than actual usage.

Are you seeing actual meter readings on the Billing history page? Daily, or less frequent? Scroll back to December/January to see whether readings have been labelled Smart since then. A day’s usage on the Month usage view uses the difference between daily meter readings to find the day’s consumption. It will not be precisely the same as the sum of half-hourly data on the Day usage page. 

Billing may have wondered why there is a big difference between the estimates they were making and the actual consumption reported by your meter.