[HELP] OVO Energy demanding payment for previous flat.. very suspicious reasoning.

NOSHEDMANTIS

Hi MSE Folks,

To cut a long story short, for my old flat (12 month tenancy, ended Aug 2018) OVO are pursuing me for money supposedly owed to them, despite the fact we paid up and settled / closed the account.

It just smells of bullsh*t and my old housemates are having none of it. Latest email (today) is threatening to pass on debt to a collector, add more money, and potentially take it to a small claims court.

Please any advice is greatly appreciated!
Cheers!

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Below is the original email text in full [names & dates removed]:

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"Hello _______,

We’ve just noticed that your electricity statements between ______ and ______ are incorrect – we’re really sorry about that. This has happened because your meter details were incorrect. The meter was dual rate when we had it installed as single rate.

We’ve recalculated this period for you, and will send you 2 new statements within the next 48 hours.

The first statement

This will be for your correct gas and electricity usage from over 12 months ago as of today’s date. This is from ______ to ______. Under the Back-Billing Code set by Ofgem, we won’t seek additional payment for an increase in charges over 12 months old, that wouldn’t have been covered by your payments at the time.

We previously billed you £779.58 for this period, however our new calculations show that it should have been £1,031.06. That's £251.48 more than we previously said, however we won't charge you for this as it's our mistake. This will appear as a one-off transaction on this statement.

The second statement

This is your final statement and will cover your electricity use within the last year, up to ______.

Your final account balance now stands at £91.54 in debit.

We can appreciate this is debt may come as a surprise, however there are a number of options available to help you clear this.

You can log in to your My OVO Account and increase your Direct Debit. If you don’t have a Direct Debit, or the recommended Direct Debit is too high, we'd recommend that you give our Customer Care Team a call on 0330 303 5063. They can help you find the best solution to manage your account balance.

Setting up a Direct Debit with this team means we can get something in place - they have training to discuss your finances with you to work out the best options. Of course, if you'd like to make a one-off payment you can, but we understand this isn't the best method for everyone.

We hope this has been of some assistance to you.


Kind regards,
The OVO Energy Team"

Gerry1

If the meter was dual rate Economy 7 but you were on a single rate tariff, why can't they just add the two readings together each time and bill you at the single rate? That's what other companies do: I have an E7 radio teleswitch meter but it's often been cheaper to have a single rate tariff. Never had any problems.

I can't see why they want to charge you E7 unit rates and standing charges if you only signed up to a single rate tariff. If so, invoice them £91.57 for your time, trouble and expenses !

jk0

Pay up IIWY, and be thankful they are no longer allowed to go back years & years.

molerat

Was it a dual rate meter ? If so were you being billed on both registers totalled or only on one register ?

wurley

If the meter was econ 7 but you were only submitting one reading and being charged for one. You owe them for the other reading you didn't submit. If this is the case you must pay it. Don't let this go to the debt collectors. It will damage your credit rating. Set up a repayment with them that is not going to make you skint.