Not being billed

Astaroth

Just over a year ago I moved address but stayed in the same area. The new property I was moving into was about 7 months old and had had one previous tenant.

At my old property I paid my water bill by monthly direct debit - neither have water meters in the property but the water company says there are central meters which they use and do an annual reading of it and correct the bills by that.

When I was moving address I duly phoned them up and told them I was moving address. Originally they said that the area wasnt supplied by them but when I said that it was only a few streets away they then agreed that it was and it was their mistake. Looking for the property they couldnt find it but said that with a new build property it can take a long time for the builders to get everything setup. They said that they would setup a "dummy" file and transfer my account to it and when the builders did the necessary it would all be automatically sorted.

In december I noted that no payments had been taken from the DD since June when I moved out of the last place but I hadnt received anything from the water company chasing bills etc. I called them and they still couldnt find the property on their files and the advisor I spoke to then said that she hadnt heard of "dummy files" but that she was fairly new and so would get one of the more senior people to look into it and get in contact with me within a few days (I said that I wasnt desperate to have another bill to pay so wasnt worried about her timescale).

Just looking at my direct debits today and note that they still havent started taking payments... still havent written to me (or to the occupier of the address)... realise now I never got a call back from the advisor.

Now I dont really want to have another bill to pay but at the same time I dont want to be hit by a bill for 18 months water in one go when I move out or 3 years down the line.

Any advice? any one been in a similar situation?

jaws77

I had the same when we moved into a new build 3 years ago. No record of the address with the water company. All that happened with us is we got put on a monthly payment plan which covered current and future use as well as clearing the 6 month back usage.

Astaroth

I can see this being a real headache though as there is no meter for me to be able to read so when it is added to the system they will have to seperate out the 1 month the landlord had it with no tenants, 6 months of the previous tenants, 2 weeks of no tenants and then us. Now presumably there is no water usage during the empty times but there is a standing charge for sewerage isnt there?

How we are supposed to establish what the meter reads are going to have been who knows.

rosysparkle

It took me over six months and several phone calls to get a bill from Severn Trent when I moved into a new build. I put money aside each month (I read the meter and worked out the charges from the price on their website) so when the bill finally came I didn't have any nasty surprises.

If there is no meter reading, won't the water company apportion charges by date? At work I deal tenancy changes (I work for a lettings agent) and the water companies charge by the date. so there would be one month for the landlord, then six months to the first tenants, then two weeks for the landlords and then you.

littlemissmoney

I had this problem. Just put money aside and wait for a bill. Took them over a year to bill me.