Older property can't have a water meter

Flourish

As soon as I moved into my house - a small victorian terrace - I requested a water meter...I live alone, I'm away alot and I'm very, very careful with water. I was told that it wasn't possible to fit a water meter because of the location of my stop tap. When I spoke to Severn Trent Water...and explained my situation I was told that the only thing to do was to have my water turned off everytime I go away and have it turned back on when I returned :rotfl: . I can't believe there isn't a way to measure the water I actually use.

Cardew

Lots of properties are unable to have a meter fitted; or at least not at a reasonable cost.

If a meter cannot be fitted then Severn Trent have to offer you the option of an assessed charge - which is an average charge. For a single person this is about £200pa

jaxkesa

Is there a list of the assesed charge rates anywhere? I just had a water meter survey done and they said they couldn't fit it as it would be behind where the fridge goes so they wouldn't be able to read it

I'm single tenant in a 1 bed flat and don't use much water so hoping to cut my £420 bill!

Cardew

The assessed charge depends on the company. Some charge on number of bedrooms, others on occupants.

ventriloquist

Hi Flourish and all

Since Severn Trent refused to install a water meter due to stop tap location, you have the right to appeal to the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat). Contact them at 0121 625 1373 and speak to the advisor in metering department. They will have final say on your situation and can force the water company to put one if they think your complaint is justified. Their decision will be binding on the water company.:T

p.s: I would suggest you to complain by email or post as it will be more effective and you can have something in writing from them too.

jaxkesa

In my case it's Southern Water who won't fit the meter.

I was actually expecting them to fit the meter today, as I already had the survey done in December. But it turns out they had to to another survey since the previous one was done last year! And this time, they said they couldn't fit it

I wonder if they would back-date the assesment charge, to when I moved in?

ventriloquist

jaxkesa wrote: »

In my case it's Southern Water who won't fit the meter.

I was actually expecting them to fit the meter today, as I already had the survey done in December. But it turns out they had to to another survey since the previous one was done last year! And this time, they said they couldn't fit it

I wonder if they would back-date the assesment charge, to when I moved in?

Jaxkesa - they have certain time limit that they need to give decision whether they will need to fit a meter or not. If you think it is ridiculuously long, you may entitle to get the assessed household charge to be applied backdated to the date you requested your meter, not up to when you moved in (unless you requested the meter when you moved in). As for refusal, contact Ofwat to appeal. If they think you should have one, Ofwat will force Southern Water to fit one for you free of charge.

Headsabovewater

ventriloquist wrote: »

Hi Flourish and all

Since Severn Trent refused to install a water meter due to stop tap location, you have the right to appeal to the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat). Contact them at 0121 625 1373 and speak to the advisor in metering department. They will have final say on your situation and can force the water company to put one if they think your complaint is justified. Their decision will be binding on the water company.:T

p.s: I would suggest you to complain by email or post as it will be more effective and you can have something in writing from them too.

Ofwat will normally advise that Flourish go through the complaints procedure with Severn Trent before they will get involved.
So I would write in or E-mail STW first to complaine.
I’m not sure who Flourish talked too when she called STW but whoever it was should have offered Assessed volume and not to put the property into void every time she was away.
One possibility is the RV bill for the property is below £199.98 which is the lowest price on assessed volume for a single occupant living in a flat or terraced property and that Flourish spends a lot of time away from the property. Assessed charges are fixed charges no matter how much water Flourish uses it will remain the same.
So if Flourish does spend a lot of time abroad or long periods working away then putting the property into void would be cheaper for her.

ventriloquist

Headsabovewater wrote: »

Ofwat will normally advise that Flourish go through the complaints procedure with Severn Trent before they will get involved.
So I would write in or E-mail STW first to complaine.
I’m not sure who Flourish talked too when she called STW but whoever it was should have offered Assessed volume and not to put the property into void every time she was away.
One possibility is the RV bill for the property is below £199.98 which is the lowest price on assessed volume for a single occupant living in a flat or terraced property and that Flourish spends a lot of time away from the property. Assessed charges are fixed charges no matter how much water Flourish uses it will remain the same.
So if Flourish does spend a lot of time abroad or long periods working away then putting the property into void would be cheaper for her.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you. Meter refusal is considered as final by the company as they do not have an appeal system in the company, hence why Ofwat will step in and make binding decision, whether in favour of the customer or company. I worked within the water industry before and this problem is a well-known problem. The water company will not do anything if they simply refuse to install a meter, even if you exhaust their procedure up to the managing director level. I have seen many people who appealed up to the director's level and still got nothing. But after they wrote to Ofwat, within a few days, they got the resolution they wanted to. So why do you want to waste time and money if simple procedure is available

If you have doubt on my advice, contact Ofwat at above number and ask to speak to the metering department. After all, there is no harm asking for help - you'll only be given things that you ask for.

ventriloquist

OK this is taken directly from Ofwat's website:

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Any dispute between a water company and a customer as to whether it is reasonably practicable to install a meter, or whether fitting a meter would involve the company in incurring unreasonable expense, may be referred by either party to us for determination under section 144A (4) of the Water Industry Act 1991.

Please visit Ofwat's briefing on meter refusal here

Hope this helps
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Headsabovewater

[FONT=&quot]I do apologise I certainly didn't mean to stand on your ego.
I was merely pointing out that OFWAT would rather a customer exhaust all avenues of the complaints procedure with the relevant water company before they get involved.[/FONT]
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http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/faq/generalfaqs/prs_faq_complaintshelp
Please not the line that states
"[/FONT][FONT=&quot]If you have a complaint about your water company you must speak or write to them in the first instance" I draw your attention to the "must " in the last sentence.

I am in no way suggesting that [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Flourish should not pursue things further, Just that the customer should follow the guidelines laid out by OFWAT.
Lets face it "You cannot have a water meter as your stoptap is in the wrong place " is a very vague description of the problem.
It might be that the stop tap is behind a fitted kitchen and it would involve drilling a hole in a new kitchen unit to fit the meter which the meter fitter has no right to do without the express permission from a landlord if the property is rented.
[FONT=&quot]It might seem a waste of time but there is a structured complaints [/FONT][FONT=&quot]procedure between water companies, The Consumer Council For Water and OFWAT.[/FONT][/FONT]

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