Hose Pipe Horror! Help

gatita · 15 August 2014 at 2:02PM

I went away for 3 months to stay with my daughter, our trusty neighbor looked after (watered) our plants & bushes etc.) When we got back at the end of July I did a water reading as I always do, I couldn't believe my eyes! it said I had used 40 units in the 3 months we were away!!! Our neighbour had told us he thought he had left the tap running on the hose pipe due to a kink in the pipe, but only for a short while.

I received the bill yesterday and burst into tears..... the bill was £258. That is an awful lot of money for a pensioner on a basic pension.
I did phone SouthWest Water (the most expensive in the country) and explained the situation. They couldn't help. The thing is okay, hands up, the water was registered, and I have to pay, but couldn't they waive the sewerage charges, they amounted to £160 of the bill, after all there was no one in the property at all so no water went into the sewers.

Can anyone suggest anything I could do? as I say this is going to be tremendously hard for me to pay, even though they said I could spread the payments.

macman · 15 August 2014 at 4:22PM

Are you sure that the billing period corresponds exactly with the period of absence? I thought SWW billed metered supplies 6 monthly, not 3 monthly? And is the meter reading estimated or actual?
All the surface water run off went into the sewers...
The extra for plus 40 cu m on SWW would be around £120 for water and sewerage charges. Then £40 would be standing charges, which you would would have paid anyway. So, if that's a quarterly bill, about £98 of it would be your 'regular' charge.
Since you've used the water, unfortunately you will have to pay for it, over as long a period as you can negotiate.
Remember that you have a £25 rebate on this bill and on the next, so that offsets £50 this year.

gatita · 15 August 2014 at 5:12PM

Thanks for the reply, SWW bills every 3 months, and water used during tht period (hose pipe) went onto the garden not into the sewers/drain.
The reading is actual not estimated.
I don't understand what you men about "the extra" Below copied the bill.

Balance before this bill
Your last bill £8.13
Payment by Direct Debit - thanks 1 Aug 2014 £8.13 CR
Balance before this bill £0.00

Water charges
Usage charge 45 cubic metres at £2.0494 each £92.22
Standing charge £39.24 ÷ 365 days x 52 days £5.59
Total water charges £97.81

Sewerage charges
Usage charge 45 cubic metres at £3.4701 each x 95% £148.34
Standing charge £34.80 ÷ 365 days x 52 days £4.96
Total sewerage charges £153.30

Government Contribution
Reduction amount £12.50 CR
Total bill reduction £12.50 CR

macman · 15 August 2014 at 6:55PM

That bill is for 45 cu m-are you then saying that your normal quarterly bill is only for about 5 cu m?
I repeat-are the opening and closing readings actuals or estimates?
If on 3 monthly billing you'll get the credit as £12.50 x 4 over the year.
Much better to make your payments fixed monthly by DD, not whole bill quarterly.

matelodave · 17 August 2014 at 4:52PM

We've just had something similar although not as much as the OP. We've got an automatic watering system with timers which actually works quite well and doesn't use an excessive amount of water. I do check the meter every week since we had a leak last year and noticed that we'd used about 10cu.m whilst we were away instead of the one that I expected so a rapid search for the problem ensued.

We had our grandchildren overnight before we went away with them for a fortnight and I suspect that the four year old had a bit of a twiddle, so instead of us using about a cubic metre during the fortnight we ended up using 10 (we only use about 70 in a year).
He'd altered the timers so that they were on for an hour a day - no wonder that the plants looked so lush when we got home.
To add insult to injury we've apparently had the best part of 3" of rain over the past week or so.

gatita · 17 August 2014 at 5:51PM

Macman, I don't think you understand! the bills were 'actual' readings, and it was for the 3 months we were AWAY from the property.
I have never had a problem paying before this, and our average usage over the year is for 8 c.m. p.m.

JC_Derby · 18 August 2014 at 7:11AM

Have you checked for any leaks?

roddydogs · 18 August 2014 at 7:35AM

Its always annoyed me that you get charged sewerage fot same amount as usage, when some or all in this case goes on the garden.

PasturesNew · 18 August 2014 at 7:42AM

roddydogs wrote: »

Its always annoyed me that you get charged sewerage fot same amount as usage, when some or all in this case goes on the garden.

They usually do an estimate that says something like "we expect 90% of what you use to go into the drains" - and it's based on that.

Cardew · 18 August 2014 at 9:04AM

roddydogs wrote: »

Its always annoyed me that you get charged sewerage fot same amount as usage, when some or all in this case goes on the garden.

If you can PROVE that more than 10% of supplied water goes to the garden, then you can get a reduction in your sewerage bill.

The operative word is 'prove'.

There was a case some while ago where someone had a large pond and had a metering device to measure the water fed to that pond.

macman · 18 August 2014 at 9:25AM

gatita wrote: »

Macman, I don't think you understand! the bills were 'actual' readings, and it was for the 3 months we were AWAY from the property.
I have never had a problem paying before this, and our average usage over the year is for 8 c.m. p.m.

I understand very clearly, and was trying to establish what your 'normal' quarterly usage was, which you intimated to be 5 cu m (45-40). Your comment above indicates it to be more like 2 cu m.
That is incredibly low annual usage: for one person 'low' would typically be 45 cu m pa.
Which is why I asked you to confirm if actuals or estimates-which you have now done.

Hose Pipe Horror! Help

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