Water Bills questions and comment

Cardew

mark_hants wrote: »

Yes just me. My flat is in a block of 38 flats and there is no meter within my flat. Yes 10 payment of £31. Just seems alot for an average side 1 bedroom flat. It made me wonder because someone on facebook has a house and is paying just £12 a month.

So you are assessed on your Rateable Value(RV).

Unfortunately the RV of a property is nothing to do with its size or value.

It was assessed as long ago as 1973(and certainly before 1990) and depended on the rent it could notionally command. Some huge houses can pay less than you are charged.

You can apply for a meter and if one cannot be fitted you will be offered the single person assessed rate.

theblinkster

Please can anyone answer a simple question? Can South East bill me for water used in a property in the 6 months after I left it? I informed them (by phone) at the time I was going to be moving. When I got a bill a few months later I sent South East all the proof possible that we'd moved (closing bills for the old property from all utilities companies, new tenancy agreement etc.) and suggested they contact the new occupiers. They said that even if we'd moved they had no record of me telling them (their word against mine) so they were going to bill me anyway but as a goodwill gesture they would give me a discount! Can they do this? As I say I have every proof including a closing bill from Southern Water who needed South East water's closing bill figures to issue a bill!

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Presumably Southern Water provide your sewerage facilities and South East your water supply?

As you appear to have proof you gave a reading to South East, I would contact the Consumer Council for Water; they are excellent. A phone call will suffice!

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

water_woe

Cardew wrote: »

Presumably the house has no meter.

In which case you are liable for the water charges based on the Rateable Value(RV) from the date of purchase to the present.

It might have been unoccupied, but water was being used.

There isn't a water meter in the house, just gas and electric, so I don't think they are getting the price from a specific meter.

Originally Posted by water_woe

Should i just ignore it and sell the house and let the next guy just
register his details with them and they will wipe the bill?

samsmoot wrote: »

I would, but that's me.

More sensible advice might be to pay from when work started on the house up until now, which may have taken place only over the last six months - or three - or less.

But if no water at all was used then I don't believe you are required to pay anything.

Don't forget to notify them when you vacate the premises - you might be liable for any future charges if you don't.

Also they don't have any of my details (name, dob, bank details etc.) the letter just stated 'The occupier' and then the address. So I don't actually have an account with United Utilities. So I'm thinking if I just ignore it they can't do anything, can they? I don't want to ring them up and have to give them all my personal details before I can even talk about the size of the bill etc. You know what these call centres are like, have to get every last drop of personal info before you can even do anything.

samuela66

Hi,

Wonder if someone can help with this, my b/f Dad asked him how much his water bill was, we are both monthly billed not on a meter, it turns out his Dad is paying £70 more per year, yet his council tax band is one lower than ours, I didn't think it went on that but he seems to think it does, he also lives one mile away from us.

many thanks

samxx

Gothicfairy

council tax banding has nothing to do with your water bill...it is based on the RV of the property and next door neighbours can be paying different amounts for the same sort of property.

samsmoot

water_woe wrote: »

Also they don't have any of my details (name, dob, bank details etc.) the letter just stated 'The occupier' and then the address. So I don't actually have an account with United Utilities. So I'm thinking if I just ignore it they can't do anything, can they?

Probably not so I'd just keep quiet about it.

Pnutter

We've just moved into a new property in Falmouth, Cornwall and got a water bill of 933 quid per year. It's a two bed property, three adult inhabitants.

My question is how on earth the rateable value of this property can be this high? It's a property with a shop below and three flats above it, could they have taken the rateable value for the entire property? And is there a way of doing something about this bill???

Cardew

Pnutter wrote: »

We've just moved into a new property in Falmouth, Cornwall and got a water bill of 933 quid per year. It's a two bed property, three adult inhabitants.

My question is how on earth the rateable value of this property can be this high? It's a property with a shop below and three flats above it, could they have taken the rateable value for the entire property? And is there a way of doing something about this bill???

Welcome to the forum.

It may well be that you are paying the water charges for the whole building, that is if the building was converted into flats and you have 'inherited' the original RV.

It is even possible that the other flats have the same original RV.

If the building was converted after 1990 your flat should have had a meter fitted.

You can check with SW Water if the other flats and shop are paying water charges. If SW Water get awkward, contact the Consumer Council for Water.

There is no mechanism to change the RV, you need to get a meter or an assessed charge.

Gothicfairy

~First check your property on https://www.voa.gov.uk as that will tell you how the property is rated ie flats or whole place
That is how it will appear on the water companies site so it is cheaper to check that out first yourself to save a trip to the CCW as there is no real need to go that far at this stage.