I moved house and closed my OVO account but my details have been found through 'trace and search' - how can I stop the debt collectors contacting me?

It is legal for debt collections to do this. I’ve asked Nukecad to stop by and you’ll soon find out why.

OK thanks Blastoise186, let’s see what Nukecad says.  Let’s say that we send the information and they remove my son from the account, then what?  They will do the same with my daughter, won’t they?  Where does this stop?  They need to realise the property is no longer supplied by them,

The data does not come from the Electoral Roll - it comes from the Credit Reference Agencies - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Someone has a credit agreement at your property so OVO can use Trace and Search to identify you that way, completely above board.

It doesn’t matter who supplies the property now, if there’s an outstanding debt from an old account of any type, whoever it’s owed to is legally entitled to chase it up.

If the matter gets totally solved, the process ends and nothing further happens after that.

I couldn’t comment on the legality or otherwise of OVO’s actions. I would though urge you (collectively) to take a pragmatic approach to save a lot of hassle and possible expense in the future. If your son is still living at home, all he has to do is make a statement that he is not responsible for household bills because you are.. 

The final bill you say you eventually received and paid should have been the end of the story. OVO must have had some reason (possibly wrong) for sending a subsequent bill, and by ignoring it instead of challenging it you have really brought this situation on yourself. Compare the amount they claimed with the costs you might incur - not just in money, but in time, too - by pursuing this apparent illegality. There are rules governing a supplier’s ability to ‘backbill’, but they don’t always apply:

You haven’t mentioned what the backbill was for, so I can’t speculate on the possible outcome of any further action you may take. If you’re sure you don’t owe OVO anything, all you have to do is write to them and say so and why. You can then dispute any substantiated claim they may make.

I’m sure that Nukecad will recommend that any further communication with OVO be done in writing.

Hi @gbuteler 

I believe that I know what is going on here, it looks like debt collection which is why Blastoise186 pinged me because I know about that stuff, and how to stop it.

.

I started to receive letters “to whoever is living in the property” and trying to bill for a certain amount that was owed.

“Was Owed” - Without knowing the details It sounds to me that OVO believe there is a debt outstanding from when you left them, and have instructed a collections agency to collect that debt.

(I personally have had similar from multiple agencies, one after another, after I left one supplier 3 years ago who were then trying to charge me for an invalid debt.
Which is how I know about it and how to fairly quickly stop the collection agencies contacting you. I quickly managed to shut each of them up everytime).

Can you confirm if these letters are actually coming from OVO, or are they from a collection agency saying that they are working for OVO?

I strongly suspect from what you have said that they are in fact from a collection agency.

Letters addressed to “The Occupier” are usually from debt collection agences, who have been appointed.instructed to collect a debt outstanding to a supplier.
(They have to send these as part of a legal process).

They may then use a trace service to find a name (any name) connected with the property and if they do then they have to send letters to that name at the property rather than just to ‘The Occupier’. (again it’s that legal process).

Do the previous letters addressed to “The Occupier” and now to your son say that they are regarding an outstanding debt?

If so then the “Account” they are refering to is a collections/repayment account with the agency, it is not a supply account with OVO at all.

There are simple ways to deal with that if that is what is happening, and I can help there with the right wording to use and advise how these things play out.

But first it is important to work out just who is sending you/your son these letters.

So to start with what company name is on the top and/or bottom of the letters?
I may even know the particular company and may have dealt with them (shut them up) myself.

If the letters are indeed from a collection agency then shouting at OVO is not going to help because OVO will not know what is in them or what the “Account” is because it isn’t an account with OVO.

Once you’ve confirmed just who we are dealing with, and that it is a collections agency, then we can go from there using the right methods.

Thanks all for the help. The letters that were addressed to the occupier (and that I dismissed because I had closed the account and there was no more Ovo meter) were coming from Ovo itself. The new letter addressed to my son is also coming from Ovo, but this was a letter about booking an appointment for smart meter. Having my son name on an Ovo account in my house was a red flag for me which is why I called Ovo. They have not (yet) send a letter claiming money. But it is concerning to me and my son that there is an account in his name and that most likely is (wrongly) in debit.  My son lives in the US as he is studying there and moved in September 2022, 6 months before I closed the account with Ovo. He comes here for holidays of course but technically doesn’t live here although he lived here all his life. 
 

I think you have a point Ovo believes there is an outstanding balance. When I closed the account the day BG came with the new meter and the Ovo meter was removed (I had to do this as I needed a three phase meter which Ovo was not giving me and BG agreed to install) their first final bill had the wrong reading. After flighting (and a photo of the removed meter which they took months to collect) they amended the final bill. It could well be they are trying to get that difference from someone, ignoring the fact that this has been my house all along.  However, this doesn’t explain the fact that I had a person coming to check the meter reading for Ovo. Shouldn’t they know there is no more Ovo meter? They took it with them!!

Thanks for trying to help. 

You say that it was OVO writing to you as "The occupier" or “to whoever is living in the property”.
Although I don’t understand why they would do that if they had your name all along?
EDIT- Yes I can now, it’s the standing charge for the single phase meter which was still there, and they could only write/bill to ‘the Occupier’ because you had closed your account.

Along with other things that you say then this no longer looks like a debt collection issue at all.

However something else that you say does sound much more likely to be the whole cause of what is happening here.

The circumstances of the meter exchange sound pretty odd to me.
You seem to be saying that BG replaced a single pahse meter and took you as a new 3-phase customer while you were still an OVO customer too?
Or at least saying that you had closed your account with OVO earlier that day, but hadn't switched from OVO to BG in the normal way.
Usually you switch companies first and then get the meters changed once the switch has been done.

As it appears to have been done in an unusual way then that may well be the source of your problems.
It appears that because of the way it was done then the removed single phase meter was never marked down in the DNO records as being removed, and so an MPAN for a single phase supply meter is still registered as being at your property.
That would certainly explain the fact that OVO sent a meter reader (because nobody was sending readings for the still registered meter) and why they think there is a meter that needs to be replaced.

It also explains why they were then sending letters to ‘The Occupier’ - someone was responsible for the standing charges that were accumulation for that single phase meter which was still there.

If the Network records still show that there is a single phase meter at the property then all the rest slots into place as explicable.

In which case it would be that MPAN record that you need to get corrected, backdated to when the meter was actually removed.
Until that is done then the Network Operator, and so OVO, believe that there is still a single phase meter at the property. (And standing charges are still being racked up daily).

I believe that would normally call for a 'Logical disconnection' request from the supplier to the DNO, but am unsure about the backdating issue, or just which supplier that would now be?
Presumably it would still be OVO to make that request as the BG 3-phase meter should have its own different MPAN?
@Blastoise186 do you agree with my thinking here? and if so do you have any advice on a Logical disconnection request in unusual circumstances?

@Nukecad Great insight!

Don’t forget the standing charge for that 1-ph meter if it’s still registered as being in place at the property. Eighteen months’-worth of standing charges is hundreds of pounds, to be haggled over.

I had realised about the standing charge, which could probably explain what was said about earlier billing to ‘The Occupier’, but if a logical disconnection gets backdated then those only apply up to that disconnection.

As for the account in the sons name, No Meter Point Administration Number = no supply account possible.

I doubt that BG did actually disconnect the single phase meter which after all was still registered to OVO, it would seem more likely that BG sinply fitted their own 3-phase alongside it.
They might have disconnected the OVO meter from the CU but shouldn’t have disconnected the OVO meter itself from the network.
In which case the standing charge would still apply but as the OP had closed their OVO account then they could only bill it to ‘The Occupier’.

I can imagine all sorts of shenanigans if a database controller were to allow entries to be backdated. There must be a process in place for ‘Sorry, I forgot’ scenarios, but I shouldn’t be surprised if some haggling between supplier and customer had to take place.