Help!!! Are South Staffs Water board LYING???????

Dawnyann34

Can anyone help me with this please.

I have just rang south staffs water board to tell them that im moving address from a one bed flat into a house. Neither properties are fitted with water meters and I have just been informed by the guy on the phone that ther was a change in the law since April 2010 that says:

Any change of occupancy must now be fitted with a water meter and therefore the house we're about to move in to HAS to have one fitted when in fact we don't want one!

Does anyone know if this is true?

Please help cos I would like to know my facts before ringing them back up & kicking off!:mad:

Cheers
D
x

DVardysShadow

Yes, all suppliers apparently have the right to enforce this, although, up to the present many have chosen not to.

Water meters are not all bad. You probably only lose out if you are a family of 7 who all have a bath every night and live in a 2 bed terrace

Cardew

It was always the intent of the Water Privatisation Act that all properties should eventually have meters and water companies were given the authority to compulsory fit them on change of occupant. After all it is the only fair way of charging for water i.e. pay for what you use - like gas, electricity, telephone etc not really a radical idea.

As stated above some water companies strictly enforce that rule, others don't bother.

I did read a report that pressure was being applied for all companies to enforce the regulation.

Mobeer

I don't think the law has changed on this recently. The water company may have a right to insist one compulsory metering on change of occupancy, but as far as I can tell they are under no legal obligation to insist on this.

Cardew

Mobeer wrote: »

I don't think the law has changed on this recently. The water company may have a right to insist one compulsory metering on change of occupancy, but as far as I can tell they are under no legal obligation to insist on this.

Agreed they are not under any obligation to insist on a meter being fitted on change of occupant. However the whole idea of fitting meter under the Water Privatisation act was to reduce consumption and the right to insist on meters was to facilitate that aim.

The problem lies in the way water companies are funded. They are allowed to make £xmillion profit by the Regulator and largely it doesn't matter to the companies how they raise that revenue.

I suspect the Goverment are reluctant to make companies fit meters as it is politically unacceptable to have lots of large families in properties with a low RV facing huge rises in their water charges.