Moving into a home that OVO supplies - A Guide

Thank you. This worked. Appreciate the help!!

Hi @Gauri0904,

It seems our forum volunteer has given some great advice here. I’m happy to hear that this has been resolved.

This thread may also be helpful in future:

• Moving into a home that OVO supplies - A Guide Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

I hope you can help

I signed up to a fixed contract in September 2024 but Ovo only partially set me up and have now asked me to confirm what rates i had signed up to so they can honour it. I don't have this information, can anyone help? I signed up on 24th September and selected the 1 year fixed with boiler cover as it had the best rates for me. Thank you in advance! 

It’s not easy to find old tariffs, but the rates should be clearly spelt out on any bill you received during the period. They should also be there in your billing history, so just have a look at any of the months from October 2023 to August 2024. It looks as if the boiler cover option just gives a ~25% rebate on the standing charge.

Don’t tell me you’ve not had any bills ...

Hi @Firedog , 

thank you, but the issue is i just moved into the property in September and signed up to OVO, namely as it was the provider of the previous owner…. so i don’t have any previous bills to check. 

If anyone has any record of what they have signed up to, it would be extremely helpful as i want to secure the rates when i signed up in September, (but which weren’t properly set up by Ovo) and not the higher rates on the current deal, changed in October. 

That explains your interest!

Normally when moving into a property and setting up an account with the existing supplier, you’d be put on the Standard Variable Tariff (that’s Simpler Energy in OVO-speak). I’ll have to ask what happens to the existing boiler cover on change of ownership @Emmanuelle_OVO [ @Tim_OVO !], but my guess is that it lapses as soon as the previous owner’s account is closed. In any case, you won’t necessarily be able to continue on the previous owner’s terms.

Have a look at the tariffs available and take your time to pick the best. I’m afraid you’ve missed the boat as regards grabbing a fixed-rate deal at pre-October prices.

You’ll find answers to most of the questions you may have on the various help pages. 

Hi @Firedog 

OVO have confirmed they will honour the September rate, however,I have to confirm what the rate was in September (before the October rise). They acknowledge they did not set up my account properly - so am half registered, something went wrong on their end. 

So if i have the rates for September for the “1 year fixed with boiler cover” they will honour those rates/tariffs. 

Hopefully that makes sense. 

When you signed up to the Fixed rate with boiler cover did you not get an email confirming that, including what the rates you had signed up to were?

If I recall when I did a new fix (no boiler cover) a few months ago I got 2 emails. One with my new electricity rates and one with the gas rates.

Hi @Nukecad 

I got a confirmation email but only for the boiler coverage. they have admitted they messed up - they will not confirm the tariffs BUT will hour them if i can prove what they were in September 2024.

Well the tariff would have been different depending on where you live.

While I also would have though someone at OVO should have the historical information they may not do because it would be different for each area.

 If was computer generated ‘live’ for each individual enquiry/application then it may be calculated by the computer from a set datum each time, and that datum has of course now changed.

That's a computer programming thing, records aren't always kept of temporary enquiries.

So unless you have a record of what was said by the computer at the time then the people you are talking to won't necessarily be able to reproduce it now.

Which let's face it is why they are asking if you have it for them to be able to honour it for you.

If neither of you have it then you will have to negotiate, or accept the current fixed rate.

Hey @carolineharte,

​

I understand you've encountered issues upon moving in and setting up your tariff. Our community members have offered valuable advice, which I hope will be helpful. As @Nukecad correctly mentioned, you should have received confirmation emails or letters when you signed up for the new tariff. However, if you don't have access to this information as evidence, you may need to contact our Support Team to discuss options.

I hope your tariff issue gets resolved soon 😊

I recently moved in to a new place. We have an OVO account, presumably because the previous tenants had one and it's just carried over. However I can't log in to an online account in order to add payment details etc, as my email address or my personal details aren't associated with the account number and I just get an "oops" error every time I try to set up an account. There's no way of changing or adding any details without logging in, which I can't do. I also can't call to speak to anyone, because I can't get past the security checks on the automated system, because I can't set up my account properly in the first place, so I end up in this loop of not being able to do ANYTHING. The chat bot is completely useless, it just ends the chat every time I enter my details. I tried Whatsapp. hoping that a human would see the message, but it ends up just going in to the chat bot again, I'm very much going around in circles and it's extremely frustrating.

I really need somebody to give me a call (assuming any humans actually work at OVO? So far I've only been able to deal with robots) so I can set everything up, as I've started getting threatening letters about debt collection etc now. We have no problem at all paying, but I can't give you the money online or over the phone currently, and I have tried absolutely everything, so I'm very stuck. This forum is my last ditch effort.

Thanks
 

You can't use the previous tenants account or account number, (they will have / should have told OVO to close it when they moved out)  and so you will need to set a new one up for yourself.

Have a read of this guide about moving house and setting up new accounts:

https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/setting-up-your-gas-and-electricity-in-your-new-home

I just want to speak to someone.

I’ve tried the number in that guide - 0330 303 5063 - and pressed the button to speak to a member of the team, but I still have to enter my account number, date of birth, post code etc and then it says “sorry we couldn’t verify your account”. How do I skip all this and just talk to someone????

Just a note ​@Paul GGGG that the forum is not a direct route to OVO customer support. Being a public forum, there is no access to customer details for anyone. 
As Nukecad has mentioned, you need to set up your own account otherwise there might be a problem with previous charges

Hello,

 I'm trying to contact ovo via email as the house i've bought is supplied by them but as i don't have an account the emails get returned when emailing hello@ovoenergy.com any contact via moving home directs me to setting up an account with payment details etc but i might not want to continue with ovo until i know the tarrifs etc.

Hi,

You're doing it wrong. Please use https://switch.ovoenergy.com or call 0330 303 5063. You CANNOT setup via email.

You MUST setup with OVO if OVO is the existing supplier. You cannot leave until you do so.

Ok thanks i'll try that.

Cheers

​@Paul GGGG you can bypass those by pressing the # key when the bot asks about them - it’s a skip option.

There’s a guide here ​@Unclescotty 

• Moving into a home that OVO supplies - A Guide Tutorial

Hey ​@Unclescotty 

Glad to see a couple of our volunteers have already stopped by with some really helpful advice.

If your new home is supplied by OVO, you can contact our Support team via web messaging and WhatsApp, the opening hours are:

• 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday 

• 9am - 2pm on Saturdays
   

You can see all open contact channels via our Help Centre. 

Once you put in your new address details the website will recognise we already supply your new home and give you a quote based on the usage figures we have for the property. 

Once you’ve set up your account, we’ll email you a welcome pack within 5 working days. If you do then wish to switch to a different supplier, you can then do so easily. You can view all of our plans here.

I am a landlord and have never used OVO before.  I had the “new occupier” letter from OVO today so I rang them up to tell them the bill will be in my name for the next few months.  I asked to switch from the deemed supply to a cheaper fixed term and I was told I would have to pay the exit fee when the property transferred to a tenant.  I said my understanding was that the exit fee was charged if I changed to another supplier not if I moved home.  I have since looked at the website and it seems to agree with my version.  

I was on the phone for 40 minutes and do not want to ring again until this is clarified.

Can someone please let me know the terms of the exit fee.

Many thanks

Hi ​@slooky ,

I’m not sure I have the answer to hand for that one. Bear with me while I dig up resources - this may take a while, so are you OK to hang in there for a bit?

If I can’t find the answer, I’ll raise this to someone who can.

thank you.

Just looking at the ovo site.  I requested an online account so i could manage my account and the lady on the phone said I couldn’t have one because I don’t have a smart meter.  I asked how was I supposed to submit readings and manage my account and she said I only had a choice of bills being sent via email or post!!!

I asked how was I supposed to give meter readings and she said I had to ring them in once a week.  I’d had enough by then so I left the phone call quickly.

Looking at the OVO site it allowed me to register an online account very quickly and easily, it has all the usual payment facilities and meter readings etc.   

I am at a loss as to why this lady misinformed me so much.

Hmm… Seems like that might need to be fed back… Please leave that with me - I’ll ask the Forum Moderators to ping the right people to get this put in the suggestion box.

As for your question, while I couldn’t figure this one out myself, I managed to ping an internal contact of mine and got an answer in seconds.

Closing a Temporary Landlord Account because a new tenant has moved in is treated the same as any Moving Home which means exit fees will be completely waived - just make sure to use the Moving Home process to do so and provide a Meter Reading for the date the tenant moved in! You should also be able to tell OVO the details of the new tenant IIRC.

With that being said, you might want to consider getting a Smart Meter installed while you’ve got control of the supply. No pressure of course, but it does make handling this stuff a lot easier because OVO can then just pull an automatic reading whenever tenants move in/move out so that everything can sync up more easily.

Hope this helps