Debt collection! pursuing for Avro (in admin) over old account with dispute that went to Ombudsman

needhelp24

I am looking for any help! This is a somewhat complex energy account issue. To try to be brief:

I had an energy account with Avro while I lived at another property. I paid each month by direct debit and always checked the metre readings on the statement to see that my own were in line with this. I did not send metre readings as the estimates were always about my usage. 

 

When I closed my account as I was moving out of the property my actual readings were less for gas and £2 over in electricity, but the company said that my account was in £445.20 in debt. I did not understand how this could be the case as I paid my direct debit every month. I queried this and was told that they were following the industry standards for readings and that my direct debit was not covering my usage. I again could not understand why they would set my DD amount lower than the usage they had predicted for me as this would knowingly put me into debt. I made a complaint and got no where beyond this, so I went to the Ombudsman. I provided the ombudsman with my email correspondence, the statements and my own notes of my readings. I was told by the Ombudsman that Avro had offered a resolution to me. I contacted Avro twice over this on 04/03/2021 and chased 10/04/2021 and they did not respond. At this point I did not know what to do and the Ombudsman then said Avro could not find my account and the case was closed. I'd honestly had enough and Avro had not contacted me since 15/01/2021.

 

On the 23/03/2022 (this year) I received a letter from Credit Style stating that I had an unpaid debt relating to my final bill from Avro (now in Administration). They included the final bill. I contacted the administrators for Avro  - Alvarez and Marsal who told me to contact Octopus energy as they would have my file. Octopus told me to contact Ovo. Ovo wouldn't respond to me via email and I could never get through to them on the phone. I have screen shots of being on hold for over an hour. In the end I sought help from Citizens Advice. They said go back to Alvarez and Marsal. I did this and they said I need to prove I don't owe this amount to Credit Style. I am not really sure how I can now do this again and need your help as I am obviously dealing with the debt collection company. From my research I believe I should have been advised about the Ofgem ruling in 2018 where energy suppliers cannot 'back bill' their customers? I have never refused them access to the property for metre readings and as I said I simply did not give them as they were always within the estimates on the bills. I also would have had no issue paying the appropriate direct debit, what I have issue with is a huge bill at the end of the account that became my problem when Avro should have made these adjustments during the time I was with them.

 

Any advice you have to help me solve this and move on would be so gratefully appreciated!

 

MWT

From what you have said, this is not a 'back-billing' issue as you say the meter readings you took, but did not send, were roughly in line with the estimates, so for there to be money owing, it would have to be that your DD payments were not covering the use, be it estimated or accurate.

You should be able to see this on your statements, there will have been an opening balance, a charge for the current period, a deduction for your payment and then a balance carried forward...

If that was showing a balance you owed to them and it was getting slowly worse then that is how you owe them money...

Can you check the last statement you received from them?

[Deleted User]

Have a read of this link:

https://ibeatdebt.com/prove-it-letter/

A couple of other things to consider. Administrators of failed suppliers are not subject to Ofgem regulations or scrutiny. The Energy Ombudsman, for example, does not have the powers to a consider a complaint that Avro failed to comply with the Regulations when it was trading. If it did consider a complaint, it has no powers with which to impose a remedy.

Administrators also have a statutory duty to recover all monies owed.