Water overcharge-10 years

nikkimaclean

In certain circumstances including unadopted sewers some water companies will go back way beyond one year. 600 quid for surface water over 10 years sounds about right.
The OP may not have made a claim. it may have come to light through a neighbour and the whole street has benefited. Or it could have come to light through an audit like the water company said. As they have refunded the full ten years charges I would doubt you would get any interest on top. I think you are right to just accept the refunded charges because under other circumstances one year would have been all you had back.

Gothicfairy

Cardew, it has to be for SWD surely as there is no way foul can go into a storm drain ? ? Or the op has that part wrong and it is something else..Unadopted is more about the repair and maintenance of the pipe work then the work involved in cleaning the foul and treating it as there is no way around that other then a septic tank etc

Something is not quite right here as even if it was the company that got it wrong they have no legal reason to go back that far and it is unlikely that they would do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

nikkimaclean

There is no legal obligation but I would imagine it depends how long ago the water company knew. If they were told 6 years ago that the sewer was unadopted but didn't act on the information I guess they have no choice but to go back 10 years. This issue is getting more and more common, particularly with new estates

Gothicfairy

True but unadopted sewer is not the same as a storm drain for SWD.
A sewer can be unadopted but the foul still goes to the same treatment plan and is still dealt with by the water company. All it really means is that they will not pay to repair it etc.
The question is : if it is foul where is it going and if it is SWD then why backdate that long ?
From what the op has said it is not foul as that can not run into a storm drain.

nikkimaclean

I assumed OP was referring to surface water not foul. I can only go by my own experience but non connection for swd due to soakaways etc is treated very differently from unadopted storm drains. 10 years for in these type of cases is not unusual. 1st April is the general rule but as shown in a recent programme this is not always the case.

Gothicfairy

I see what you are saying but...The op said Sewerage (ie foul) so I was going with that and unadopted is something different all together with that.
If the SWD goes to a storm drain then it is simply a case of them not being connected and that is only the first year of applying (to the date of the application)..Which is why it seems so confusing with what is being said.

I have not heard of 10 years at all as 6 is normally the rule for all things, ie they can backdate charges so tend to use that as giving back as well.

As it is not clear what the op is talking about there is no way of knowing what is correct or not really.

nikkimaclean

Yeah the non adoption\surface water policy I refer to maybe specific to the departments and water company I work for. But true we don't know for sure what's gone on here.:beer

neil9313

So how many years can a water company back date sewage/drainage charges if they have never charged from the time the property was built?

Im not asking re fresh water.

Gothicfairy

neil9313 wrote: »

So how many years can a water company back date sewage/drainage charges if they have never charged from the time the property was built?

Im not asking re fresh water.

sewerage/sewage is 6 years if they have not been charging and should have been.

Drainage is "Normally" the year it was discovered as that is surface water drainage and fixed on a the property type (as if you are on RV it is included in that charge anyway)

Cardew

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Drainage is "Normally" the year it was discovered as that is surface water drainage and fixed on a the property type (as if you are on RV it is included in that charge anyway)

I appreciate you work for a water company, but surely that information is wrong.

If you are on RV you pay one of two rates depending on SWD or not. e.g with Severn Trent 61.87p per £1 RV without SWD and 97.59p with SWD.

If you wish, even on RV charging, you can elect for a fixed SWD charge depending on your type of property. Unless you have a very low RV, in most cases this is cheaper. For flat/tce an RV of £100 or more means you are better off with a fixed charge, Semi and Detached it is £200 and £300.