OVO taken me to court for debt not mine.

Scot_39

As asked above - final bill for 2022 ?

This should have been received within iirc 6 weeks.

If no final bill / refund as expected - OVO may not have properly closed your account. 

Can you check old bank records for transaction that far back ?

By simple mistake.  Or because landlady, new tennants(*) never registered with Ovo after you left.


Did you do or get anything in writing (email or snail mail - did you bother to set up postal forwarding service to new address ? ) at the time in response to final readings by phone. 

Ovo or their debt agency advisor clearly weren't interested in new property only the contracted supply at old.


There are so many potential problems around informal tenancies, even people renting a room let alone a seperate unit / flat etc are best advised to avoid doing so.

They are often key in resolving supplier disputes - as if nothing else rental agreements normally establish clear responsibilities for utility bills and formal dates/ notice periods.  So (*) being charitable, you may be being asked to pay for a bill for 22/23 the new tennants assumed inclusive if not instructed by a formal rental agreement they had to take them over.  Which should then have fallen on landlady.

If Ovo still willing to discuss, try to ask Ovo for transcript of call or call notes and copies of missing bills - particularly final.  You may be able to do a DSAR request  asking for account notes and any past bills you don't have -  including records of calls.

[Normal CS reps might not be able to help as debt been subject to court action.
And companies won't always comply - they are only legally obliged to provide limitted personal data in response iirc - but some in my case SGas as POA on mums account - will provide a subset in response to even just a request or formal complaint by existing customer.  Old customers ?  and after debt action ??]


And I'd seek help from CA or an advice charity about the appeals process.

And if the 7 days to submit new defence alone was sufficient notice for ccj action.

Sorry if the above sounds like preaching after tge event - it's not meant to.

This whole scenario stinks when you clearly tried to do the right thing in phoning in final reads.

Qyburn

If this really goes to court it's going to be decided on the balance of probabilities, ie which is more likely to be true. So in your shoes I'd be digging out any material that indicated having moved out. Address changes on bank accounts, driving licence etc. Any correspondence to do with ending the tenancy.

Steve321VFR

Thank you everyone for your advice. This is so frustrating, I'm hindsight I should of had closing account in writing and proof from landlord I moved out, but I never anticipated this would happen at the time, I'd never heard of OVO, as I was with SSE.I

The only thing I found so far that the new tenants moved in was a post on their local Facebook residence page, with a photo they had taken outside the house, giving moving boxes away saying they just moved into my old property timed and dated with my old address given in 2022, a few days after I moved out and precisely which shows this is the same time my tenancy started at my new address.

GDB2222

Steve321VFR said:

Thank you everyone for your advice. This is so frustrating, I'm hindsight I should of had closing account in writing and proof from landlord I moved out, but I never anticipated this would happen at the time, I'd never heard of OVO, as I was with SSE.I

The only thing I found so far that the new tenants moved in was a post on their local Facebook residence page, with a photo they had taken outside the house, giving moving boxes away saying they just moved into my old property timed and dated with my old address given in 2022, a few days after I moved out and precisely which shows this is the same time my tenancy started at my new address.

That’s rather good evidence. Are they still at the same address? 

FreeBear

Steve321VFR said:

Thank you everyone for your advice. This is so frustrating, I'm hindsight I should of had closing account in writing and proof from landlord I moved out, but I never anticipated this would happen at the time, I'd never heard of OVO, as I was with SSE.I

The only thing I found so far that the new tenants moved in was a post on their local Facebook residence page, with a photo they had taken outside the house, giving moving boxes away saying they just moved into my old property timed and dated with my old address given in 2022, a few days after I moved out and precisely which shows this is the same time my tenancy started at my new address.

Screenshot the post, email a copy to yourself and a couple of friends, and store a copy somewhere safe on your computer. Also print out a couple in full colour so that you have a hard copy to add to the pile of paperwork.