Anglian Water Broken Meter and Backdated Estimated Bill

JustinD

Hi All,

We moved into a rented house in sept 09 and started paying £50 a month DD to anglian water and were quite happy to pay this even tho i thought it was a bit much.

Since then we found out that our water meter wasn't working so i rang them and told them about it. They came out 5 weeks later and repaired this. But i took 1 reading and went to take a meter reading 1 week later to find that it hadn't changed by much. about 80 litres in a week!!! According to their records i have used 0 litre's of water since living here.

So i call them again to inform them that its still not working. They came out today and repaired it again. (They dug up the path this time)

Now my account has about 7-8 DD's on of £50. They have sent one bill out for the standard sewarage charge of £33. so there is a fair bit in the account still.

My query is; Can the company charge me for what water i have used? Is it legal for them to estimate what i have used? Over the winter i may have used less water than in the hot weather recently. So if they estimate that i have used X amount that may not be what i have used previously.

If i use (EG) 2 cublic litres in a week and they estimate that over previous time, whats to say that i used 2 cubic litres every week? i may have only used 1 cubic litre when i wasnt watering the garden. My point is that surely cant be legal?

Thanks in advance for any input
Justin

JustinD

Oh i forgot to mention, when i rang them the first 2 times the operator mentioned that there would be no backdated charge as the water meter was their responsibility and that the money in our account would be refunded. 2 SEPERATE people said this from anglian water.

The third time i rang they said that it would be backdated. but i cant see it being legal that they estimate what we have used as their meter recorded a 0 usage over the period we lived here?

Cardew

Firstly the meter measures in cubic metres(not cubic litres)(1 unit = 1 cubic metre = 1,000 litres)

The average use is about 1 unit per person per week.

The bottom line is that they are allowed to estimate water consumption where the meter is faulty. If you have grounds to dispute that reading then write to them and appeal.

The one bill for sewerage of £33 will just be the standard charge. When your consumption of water is established you will pay £1.43 for each cubic meter for sewerage and £1.26 for each cubic meter of water.

JustinD

Thanks for the reply. Gah, i misread cublic metres

So its legal for them to guess the reading as there are no readings from us before that for them to estimate from?

So they can say what ever they want and thats that?

Cardew

The normal basis for estimation is to monitor your consumption(once the meter is fixed of course) for a while and base their estimate on that figure.

If there are grounds why you consider that such an estimate would be to your disadvantage,(e.g. house was empty for 3 months!) you can make representations to Anglia; I think it is fair to say that normally the customer is 'in pocket' after the exercise - unless you water the garden for hours during the monitoring period.

If you are still not satisfied you can take up the matter with the Consumer Council for Water.

deanos

They do not guess the figure as Cardew says they work out your average ,normally they take 2 check reading 7 days apart