Severn Trent water complete lack of common sense

teeayeemm · 30 July 2014 at 6:32PM

Hi everyone,

First post on these forums - unfortunately our situation has gotten to the point that we need some knowledgeable guidance!

Myself and my partner live in a fairly small one-bed flat in Nottingham and have lived together for approximately 2 years. Prior to this my partner was in the same flat on her own for about the same length of time again. We use Severn Trent for our water provider which is registered is in my partners name.

We're billed every 6 months and the bills have never been over £100 until our second to last bill which has miraculously come in at £800.

Now the latest bill we have received is back to less than £100 but the water company doesn't seem prepared to accept that their system is somehow at fault.
They have come and checked our water meter which had a problem with faulty wiring which they have now (supposedly) fixed.

We are being threatened with all kind of legal action for not paying the bill but we are refusing to as we do not accept that £800 is correct.
We've had numerous phone conversations with Severn Trent customer services and complaints departments who refuse to see any problem despite us point out that the last few bills have gone as follows:

£90
£90
£90
£90
£800!
£90

Seems a little out of place doesn't it.

The water company have offered to reduce the bill by £200 bringing it down to £600 'as a goodwill gesture' after the ombudsman service got involved but we are still refusing to accept it as even this amount is hugely above the norm.

The water company are still threatening court action and just keep talking about us setting up payment plans (why would we want a payment plan when we flat out disagree with the amount of the debt!?)

Now we're not disputing that we owe something, but I would say our standard amount of £90, given that we have not used water out of the ordinary should be sufficient. Severn Trent disagrees.

So where do we go from here? We're not prepared to pay a ridiculous bill and Severn Trent are pretty much refusing to see sense, despite even one of their own customer service agents acknowledging that the bill did look unusual given that we're not running a swimming pool.

Help!

JSR · 30 July 2014 at 7:28PM

What are the meter readings on each of the bills? Have any been estimated? I live in the same area as you and my bill is £26 per month for one. So £15 per month for two does seem pretty low. Maybe the £800 is a catch up bill after a genuine read and now they've gone back to estimates?

macman · 30 July 2014 at 8:07PM

Water meters don't have any wiring-so what did they actually fix?
Have you actually checked and validated the readings on the bill against the meter? As above, are the readings on the bill in question estimated or agent?

Cardew · 30 July 2014 at 9:37PM

teeayeemm wrote: »

Hi everyone,

despite us point out that the last few bills have gone as follows:

£90
£90
£90
£90
£800!
£90

Seems a little out of place doesn't it.

Of course it seems 'out of place' However the most obvious explanation is, as suggested above, that previous bills have been based on estimated meter readings and the £800 bill is a 'catch up'.

A leak doesn't cure itself, so your subsequent 'normal' bill appears to rule out that reason.

The only way to sort this out is by getting hold of the bills and checking overall consumption over a long period; and most importantly what meter readings were estimated.

It seems that the first bills when your partner lived alone were around £90, yet haven't increased after you moved in(except for the £800 bill). This seems to indicate bills were based on estimated readings.

If you post some detail of the bills here, we can help.

matelodave · 30 July 2014 at 10:12PM

macman wrote: »

Water meters don't have any wiring-so what did they actually fix?
Have you actually checked and validated the readings on the bill against the meter? As above, are the readings on the bill in question estimated or agent?

My mum's water meter was in two parts, a transmitter unit which was plumbed in next to the stopcock connected by wiring to a remote LED display unit which was located on the outside wall of her bungalow. (Anglian Water)

macman · 31 July 2014 at 9:19AM

Thanks for that info, I was referring to a conventional 'under the pavement meter'-OP needs to clarify what type they have.

too_much_debt · 31 July 2014 at 10:24AM

We had a bill in for £1771 a few weeks ago and rang up. The lady gave us our water meter number, told us it was under the red cover (our meter is out on the street outside next door, right next to their cover). We read the meter and called back with the correct reading (they had written down the reading for the other meter (not the red one). A few days later our neighbour asked us why we had been reading their meter and we told them it was ours to which he said no when he needed to turn off his water a while ago he turned off the other meter and it did not turn his water off but his water went off when he turned off the meter we thought was ours (the meter number is on all our bills from when we moved in years ago). Apparently we are told the meter number is also registered to next doors account but it is not on any of their bills.

Someone is coming out tomorrow to so should find out what is going on. I reckon that in the 90s when next door had a meter put in it was fitted to the wrong pipe so when we moved in in 06 and we were told we did not have a meter they fitted it to the pipe under the red cover.

Is it possible that they have taken a meter reading from the wrong meter? As we had the last reading from the meter under the red cover and the latest from the meter under the black cover.

So we have been paying next doors water for God knows how long and they have been paying ours.

Severn Trent water complete lack of common sense

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free