Massive water bill!!!!

1969ajg

Hi All,

I have recently received a water bill from Severn Trent to the sum of £867.00 for 6 months :eek:...

After contacting them they advised i may have a water leak between the meter and my stop tap? :T The leek will be within my boundary as the meter is 18'' from it. (my responsibility) They told me that after i have had the repair done to contact them and altough can't promise anything they may consider reducing the bill?

I contacted my Home Insurance provider (Halifax) who confirmed i had cover for the repair but i need to pay a £200 excess .

The repair is to be carried out on monday :j.....

My bills have increased every time over the past 5 years but put it down to their price increases? now i think it was due to the leak.

I have today asked Halifax if they will also help with the cost of the bill, but was told they would have to look into the small print?? but to try to get the bill reduced from Seven Trent.

I have yet to contact Severn Trent regarding this bill, previous ones and my next one (meter whizzing round day and night at mo).

I would appreciate any advice in how to approach Severn Trent and Halifax because it seems to me i have been paying over and above for the leak for some time and if i was on water rates i would not have?

thanks,


Adrian.

squeaky

I went through all this recently with my own water company. The leak was between the meter and my stop tap - a run of less than two feet. Like you my bills had been increasing steadily over a period of time and, in fact, my very first bill after the meter was fitted was higher than expected; and complaints got me nowhere until I got bill for more than £660.

Eventually, after much argument they accepted that there must be a leak and, once it was confirmed, told me much the same thing you have heard. Lucky for me I'm a council tenant and they quickly sorted the problem.

The water company were initially only prepared to correct that last bill despite my having all the old bills available showing the increasing use and the fact that after the meter repair I showed a usage rate of less than a quarter of that on my very first metered bill.

After much discussion they finally looked back a whole year (as a special courtesy) and recalculated my bill. They had told me that there was no onus on their part to do anything more than correct that final bill - and this in itself was only done as a gesture of good will; there was no legal obligation for them to do so. After all, in their view, "your" household system had indeed taken "that much" water from their system. "Somebody" has to pay for it...

See... SIX hundred and SIXTY THREE rotten quid!

Best of luck in your negotiations with the company but don't expect to see a massive refund.

Gothicfairy

If the leak is on your side then it is your responsibility.....end of I am afraid and the water company do not have to do anything but they might offer a one time leak allowance or adjustment, STW do offer it but it depends on if it was reasonable to expect you to see the leak..IE if you noticed the bills going up but nothing had changed did you contact them at the time ?

Also you have not been paying over the odds, you have paid for the water that has gone through your meter. RV has nothing to do with it and will not help your case (it might make it worse really as it is a silly arguement at best)

You need to ask STW for a allowance/adjustment form and fill it in. Just call the customer service number and they can get one in the post to you and then once returned someone will look into it.

That is all you really can do for now as they need that form to work anything out

mcc100

1969ajg wrote: »

The leek will be within my boundary as the meter is 18'' from it. (my responsibility)

There is a possibility that the leak (I assume you are not referring to a vegetable ) may not be within your boundary as it may at the joint between the meter chamber and your water pipe and so may be within the public highway and would be Severn Trent's responsibility.

1969ajg

No not a veg mate...

Yes i suppose it is possible it is not in my boundary, but the meter chamber is quite dry which suggested to me it wasn't near to there?
The leak as yet has not surfaced and the contractors coming out Monday to find and repair the leak also came out last Friday to inspect the problem and send a report back to Halifax but they couldn't find it and i believe they are going to dig trial holes then Cap Off the pipe and test that section to try to narrow down the area leaking?
I would have thought there is always the possibility the Meter could be faulty but STW wouldn't hear of it, but surely these thing can like most things around us go wrong at times?????

Antispam

Another good example of monitoring your usage so any increase especially sharp increase can easily be spotted

Mind you having said that I do find it unfair if yout on a old system you just pay a lump sum regardless of usage and can have hosepipe on 24/7 and leaks galore but when on meter if you get a leak you pay, seems a little unfair given some of us have no choice but to be on meter

1969ajg

I agree, If i wasn't on a meter and as the leak hasn't surfaced water could be lost into the ground for a very long time and not cost me a penny extra, obviously having a meter ia a great way of detecting leaks and in that respect very useful but it does feel like getting penalised for having one??:(

macman

How did you think it was 'just price increases', as you must have noticed the much higher consumption on the recent bills?
I doubt that your home insurance covers the extra water billed for, as this is consequential loss, and they'd also argue that you should have picked up the problem up earlier, as it was noticeable from the billing.
You are not being penalised for having a meter. You are being penalised for not checking your bills.

TheoKiev.

hey guys:D newbie here.

I have recently moved from kiev, in the ukraine. miss it so much! can i stay with the same company in kiev whilst im over here and i can still pay in grivna? because i dontlike the water over here its all clean. i like mine all dirty and soupy:eek: im a patriot for my country.

Thanksor as they say in ukraine CSZCHHOV :money:

JasX

If it was me I'd get all my old bills together and note the meter READINGS.

then after the leak has been repaired monitor normal useage for a week or two (not too long, check insurance small print for how long you have to claim, or put the claim in and submit the supporting info later)

then after you have a good idea of your normal useage deduct what your normal useage is likely to have been from what you were billed and claim the lot on the insurance.

Leave it with the insurance company loss negotiator to deal with any bill reduction with the water company.
See if you can get your water company to put that bit of the bill on hold while your insurance company sorts itself out -continue to pay for current and ongoing useage.

Problems: if you were insured for the repair but not the leak still do the sums above but talk to your water company anf follow their leak allowance procedure

1969ajg

Thanks for the advice JasX, much appreciated.:)

The repair is still ongoing! Started Monday, 2 pinhole leaks later still not found the main leak?? The back yard looks like a building site at the mo, made worse with the weather we are having..