Moved in to OVO home, why am I being sent bills for 'The Occupier'? How do I set up an account in my name?

Recently moved to a new property supplied by Ovo and filled up the new quote form multiple times.

Still waiting for the Welcome Email even after one month. Is this ever going to come and do I actually get to join Ovo? 

Hey @mp-emma ,

Sounds like it probably didn’t go through. Could you give OVO a call on 0330 303 5063 and the Support Team can usually fix this for you.

Didn't go through - multiple times? 

Did try calling but get through either. 

Try again now. It’s probably a bit quieter

Good Afternoon,

I have signed up to the forum to request some possible advice/assistance with the issue of an outstanding balance on a property I have recently purchased and moved into.

I moved into my property on the 31st of January and changed providers to Eon on the 3rd of February. I am receiving letters to “The Occuipier” stating that ~£190.00 is owed in energy bills.

Naturally, I have contacted OVO regarding this issue and asked them to set up an account for me if there is any outstanding balance that I owe between the 31st of Jan and the 3rd of Feb - which I am happy to pay. But I will not be paying for anything prior to this date. OVO have informed me that there is no balance between these dates (which doesn’t make sense, standing charge?).

They also told me, to “not worry” about the letters as my details are not in their system for this outstanding balance. That said, I am worried and I feel it’s reasonable to be so… I have scanned through the forums and noticed that people have mentioned that ‘Occupier’ letters have since changed into personal letters through their scanning methods used by the collection team and have then escalated even further to debt collection agencies where OVO write off any responsibility for the collection of the balance.

I want to quash these letters regarding outstanding balance before it gets to any stage such as this. Any help on next steps would be much appreicated, thank you!

Kind Regards,

Ash

Are the letters coming from OVO or from 1 3rd party Debt Collection Agency?

What happens with previous occupier debt is that the supplier instructs a collection agency to trace the previous occupier and collect the debt.

The collection agency usually starts with “The Occupier” letters whilst also trying to trace the previous occupier using various methods to connect a name to the address, and then find where that name has moved to..
Unfortunately what then tends to happen instead is that the new occupiers name comes up as connected to the property, so the letters change from “The Occupier” to the new occupiers name.

What you need is something from OVO saying that the debt that the collectors have been instructed to chase is not your debt.

They also told me, to “not worry” about the letters as my details are not in their system for this outstanding balance.

If you haven’t already then get OVO to put that in an email or in writing, ie that the outstanding balance is not yours.

Once you have it send a copy to the debt collectors, informing them that it is proof the debt is not yours and that any further attempt to collect it from you will result in a complaint of “Harassment” being made to the FCA.

“Harassment” is the magic word there, it can have serious consequences for a debt collection agency if the FCA finds them guilty of harassment.

Keep the proof that the debt is not yours safe.
If the supplier should later instruct a different agency to try and collect then you may have need of it again.

Hi Nukecad,

Thank you for your swift response to my query, it’s much appreciated.

Apologies if I wasn’t clear in my initial message, to clarify the letters are coming from OVO, there is no debt collection agencies involved as it stands, just letters coming from OVO about an outstanding balance to pay. I believe I might be jumping the gun in bringing up the possibility of a debt collection agency getting involved, but I’m trying to clear things up before it gets to that point.

A simple don’t worry about it from OVO just isn’t clean enough for me. I asked them in response will I keep receiving these letters and they said yes. This doesn’t help me as I don’t want to receive these sorts of letters because chances are down the line, if ignored - something may come and bite me in the backside so to speak.

As discussed on the phone with OVO they said that the bill is from December to the end of January (the time period in which I did not own the property (excluding the 31st)). 

Thanks,

Ash

You should know that messages here are from forum volunteers, or occasionally a moderator. 
If you have some reference documents to the ownership period for the property, that would probably be useful to copy to OVO. 
Just on the initial energy contract - normally, you would open an account in your own name with the existing supplier before any switch - I can’t tell from your post if you did that 

Hi BPLightlog,

Thanks for the message, yes I understand that this is not directly OVO personnel, but looking at other posts I see that there is alot of awesome individuals who have some sound advice or steps to take that can be of use, so everything is much appreciated, thank you!

In regards to opening an account, I’m not too sure if the overlap would in some way confuse things, but we called both OVO and Eon on the same day to inform both of our intentions (moving to Eon). Just at a loss as they haven’t asked for any proof of our moving in date, or deed etc. I thought they may have, unless it’s easier to start a conversation via email to persue it this way.

Thanks,

Ash

Hey @ItsAsh,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community, 

If you move into a property supplied by OVO, you will still be liable to pay for a period from the date you took liability for the home, until the date you switched to another supplier. Which can be a matter of days, weeks etc. 

If you’ve already done this, and the letters are for a previous tenant or owner, we will need to send letters to the property as if it ever goes to court we’ll have to show we attempted to contact the customer who owed the money. If they never gave a forwarding address, or contacted us at all, the only address we can send this to is the supply address.

Eventually, we’ll send the details to a debt collection agency who’ll attempt to find out who the previous owner or tenant is through a process called trace & search.

As long as you’ve set up an account with OVO for the interim period before you switched away this shouldn’t affect you and the letters are for a previous customer.

Hope this helps.