Blocked from switching suppliers due to OVO back-billing dispute – Ombudsman ruled in my favour

DruidBHA12

I’m looking for advice on a deadlock with OVO Energy regarding a back-billing issue that is preventing me from switching to a cheaper supplier.

The Situation:

• The Issue: OVO failed to bill me for gas for over 12 months. They eventually issued a catch-up bill for over £2,000.
• Ombudsman Ruling: The Energy Ombudsman ruled in my favour, agreeing that this falls under "back-billing." They stated OVO must write off the portion older than 12 months.
• The Problem: The Ombudsman did not specify the exact amount to be cleared, leaving the calculation to OVO. OVO is now claiming the entire amount is still owed and has blocked my request to switch suppliers due to this "debt"

The Financial Impact:

• My fix ended last month. I am currently on a variable tariff (approx. £2,800/year).
• OVO’s current fix offers are around £3,300.
• I have found a fix with a new supplier for £2,500, but I am "trapped" because of the disputed debt.

My Questions on what to do next:

1. Since the Ombudsman ruled in my favour, can OVO legally block a switch while the "debt" is technically under dispute/appeal?
2. How do I force OVO to apply the back-billing rule correctly (limiting charges to the last 12 months) when they are ignoring the spirit of the Ombudsman's ruling?
3. Should I pay the "debt" under protest to allow the switch to go through, or will that ruin my chances of getting the money back via the appeal?

I feel completely held hostage by a billing error that wasn't my fault. Any advice on how to break this deadlock would be greatly appreciated. As I need to fix as soon as given whats currently going on.

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

On the face of it and looking solely at the information you have chosen to share, if your energy bill is £2800 a year and OVO are claiming you owe £2000 then they could be correct; they might not claiming that you owe anything from more than 12 months ago

Why do you think they're asking for too much? Was your previous fix substantially cheaper than the current SVT, such that your annual bill was less than £2000 at the time OVO issued the catch-up bill?

(Edited to highlight that there might be important information that hasn't been shared.)

MWT

How much more than 12 months did they originally fail to bill for?

How much do you think the bill should be for the 12 months preceding the date they billed you and is that based on meter readings or something else?

DruidBHA12

OVO didn’t charge for gas only for electricity, even though the direct debit was paying for it. This was only noticed by OVO over 2 years later. The debt they are trying to recover is between 2022-2025. Meaning most of this debt they are trying to recover is over 12 months. We believe the debt that we are liable for within the 12 month period to be paid is around £600. Given these bills fall out of the back billing rules.

Energy Ombudsman ruled charges for gas older than 12 months cannot be back billed which is predominantly most of the debt. Ombudsman made the odd decision for OVO to decide how much needs to be paid back. When we asked OVO, they wanted the whole paid in full. So we have appealed ombudsman decision to give a definite figure on what we owe back.

The problem I have is my current current fix ended last week and we are on the variable rate. Which is predicted us to be paying around £2800 a year for duel fuel.

We can’t stay on variable tariff as this will be massively expensive. If we fixed with ovo it will estimated costs us £3300. Our old fix was said to have cost £2500.

So we have to leave due to cost and ovo are holding us hostage and know this sadly.

The new fix at a different supplier is estimated to cost around £2500 a year.

QrizB

OVO didn’t charge for gas only for electricity, even though the direct debit was paying for it.

So your DD was enough to cover both gas and electric but OVO were only debiting it for electricity? Was your account building up credit? Did you ever ask for any of this credit to be refunded?

The debt they are trying to recover is between 2022-2025. Meaning most of this debt they are trying to recover is over 12 months. We believe the debt that we are liable for within the 12 month period to be paid is around £600. Given these bills fall out of the back billing rules.

Under the way the back billing rules are interpreted, OVO can reallocate all the payments you've made since 2022 against the unbilled gas account. It sounds like they've done this.

Having reallocated these payments, they're now saying that you're £2000 short. Your total (gas+electricity) bill for the last 12 months of the unbilled period was more than £2000, so they're only asking you to catch up for £2000 to fill in for those 12 months.

Edit to add: they're also allowed to reverse any repayments that were made during the period.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81969351#Comment_81969351

I concur, that is the most plausible explanation.

Some have been successful in appealing this back to the Ombudsman but many have not…