Water Bills questions and comment

Gothicfairy

Cardew wrote: »

The Thames computer would not, and could not, match your partner's name at his present address to his old address. i.e. how would it know that 'John Smith' who lived at 120 Arcadia Ave in 2005 is the same John Smith who is now living at 1 Railway Cottages East Cheam?;)

[/QUOTE

Not true I am afraid (the computer couldn't but a member of staff could)
Water companies have :
Account number
Property number
Legal entity number

Any of those can be linked to a new address..So if someone said " john Smith of XXXX moved to XXX " once the right John Smith is found that account can then be linked legally with the new property.

Same can be done with estate agents ( one legal entity number against 100's of properties / account numbers)

mrsrainman

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Cardew wrote: »

The Thames computer would not, and could not, match your partner's name at his present address to his old address. i.e. how would it know that 'John Smith' who lived at 120 Arcadia Ave in 2005 is the same John Smith who is now living at 1 Railway Cottages East Cheam?;)

[/QUOTE

Not true I am afraid (the computer couldn't but a member of staff could)
Water companies have :
Account number
Property number
Legal entity number

Any of those can be linked to a new address..So if someone said " john Smith of XXXX moved to XXX " once the right John Smith is found that account can then be linked legally with the new property.

Same can be done with estate agents ( one legal entity number against 100's of properties / account numbers)

That's what I thought. When he moved he would have told them his new address and that's where the final bill would have been sent to. And if it wasn't paid they would have chased again to the new address.
I just find it odd that not only have they waited the 5 years since he moved, the bill they say they are chasing is dated 6 years ago. Surely that would have been included in the final bill??!! CONFUSED!!

I guess he's just gonna have to ring them. But if it's his word against theirs....... Although I can quite imagine what he will tell them to do with their 6 year old bill!

Gothicfairy

Problem is: He might well have had an old bill (moving out) and that was paid but something changed..ie a new tenant moved in or several even and the dates or meter readings didn't match so they have ended up going back over every account , this does happen daily as part of the non standard change of occupier team.
They have the legal right to go back 6 years (through the court) and can go back further (although getting that money is harder) so there is a whole team of agents who are mean to sort these kind of accounts out.

Was his bill metered ? as most times it is the metered accounts that get reviewed years later when something becomes clearly wrong.

mrsrainman

Got a bit more info last night.
The water was on a meter. When he moved out he rung TW and the new owners of the house had already informed TW and given them meter readings. My OH then told them of his new address and ask them to send a bill for any outstanding money owed.
Still find it odd that a bill from a year before a moved out suddenly pops up.
He'll just have to ring them and find out what they have to say. Although they will be joining the back of the queue!!

Thanks for all your replies!

Izzi321

Last year I got billed by Thames water for £540! I didn't believe I used that much water so I checked my meter, called them up and gave them my meter reading. I ended up saving £200!

Izzi321

I recently got a water Butt and it has saved me loads of money on my water bills.

patalford

YOUR CURRENT BILL £200-£300 £300-£400 £400-£500 £500-£600
ONE PERSON small saving £45-£145 £145-£245 £245-£345
TWO PEOPLE little saving small saving £28-£128 £128-£228
THREE PEOPLE £12-£112
These are United Utilities own figures.If you have a relative living alone who does not have a meter they are pouring money down the drain.

Gothicfairy

Raven_v wrote: »

sometimes water bills driving me crazy!!!!

Do you want to expand on that or is that the whole point ?

Seakay

Just had an enormously frustrating coversation with Welsh Water.

I have a meter and the bill is set out:
Water
standing charge
volume used

sewerage

standing charge
volume used

It suddenley occoured to me to wonder how they measure the sewerage volume as I only have one meter and it's attached to the water in pipe near the stopc**k. I asked the man who came to read the meter and he didn't know.
I rang and asked customer services and they told me that they don't measure the sewerage it's just 95% of the water usage. I pointed out that this made no sense plus it meant that the bill was at least misleading if not actually untrue as it said that the sewerage was measured. I was told that it was not misleading as
"If anybody asks we always tell them how the figures are calculated"
I then asked for a supervisor who told me that the way the bill has been set out was approved by focus groups and would not be changed.

So there is absolutely no point in trying to save water by not flushing the loo so often, or by reusing household water to flush it because you will be charged anyway. And what is more, if you are a low user of water then they do not charge you 95% they just charge for 1 cubic metre less that the water you've used.

What is more, in my most recent £80 bill, £50 was standing charges.
1 cubic metre of water is £1.24
1 cubic metre of sewerage is £1.52 (and remember you will be charged that whether you flush or not)
1 cubic metre is 220 gallons or 1000 litres.

So really, all the savings that we keep being told to make are a distraction which will make a minimal difference to our bills.
I am still furious that the bill will continue in this format, as I consider it to be a lie.

Gothicfairy

The bill itself if not really a lie...it is measured and then reduced by either 5 / 10 % etc or by pence to the pound, it has to be measured before they can apply that.
It has been agreed by OFWAT and the government and I can't see it changing anytime soon as it is one issue that hardly ever gets complained about and as such they are not going to spend money to sort it out.

The issue with flushing the toilet is that it uses clean water so it is recorded against both the clean and sewerage rate and then does effect your bill.
You can of course reuse water as you have already been charged for that.