Rateable Values.

flashnazia

I don't know if this is answered elsewhere but I have googled this high and low and am getting frustrated!

I want to check that my water authority is not ripping me off by checking if they have the right rateable value for my property.

It's a band A yet I am paying the higher rate for water.

I know that the council tax band is different from the rateable value yet i still want to check that they are not charging me the wrong rate.

there is no way of checking this it seems!

District Valuation Office - say they no longer hold domestic
rateable values.
Ofwat say they don't have them.

The council say they don't have them and suggested I phone the water company!

I think this problem has wider reaching inplications as it may give a water company a way of ripping you off!

oldwiring

Come now, flashnazia, the RV system was discontinued in the 90s and by now no one can be expected to have retained the valuation lists. TBH I think you are trying a little too hard to be paranoic. Although utilty companies may be high chargers I do not think it is reasonable to accuse them of dishonesty by falsification of the basis of charge. But if you want to be or are paranoic, then none of us are qualified to stop you.

Cardew

As oldwiring said, the only organisation that uses the RV system is the water utility companies(the RV system stopped in April 1989)
I don't understand what you mean by "paying the higher rate for water."

If you are unmetered(i.e. assessed on RV) you simply take your RV and pay so much for each £1 of RV for water and Sewerage.

e.g. take a property with a RV of £200 and charges of, say, £1.10 for water and 90p for sewarage. You would pay 200 x £1.10 + 200 x £0.90 = £400
In most areas there are 2 rates for sewerage depending on your surface water drainage

Psykicpup

RV's cannot be changed except in very exception circumstances by the water company & have no relation whatso ever to you current Council Tax Banding. Chances are your banding is higher than your out of date RV anyway so you probably would be better off even if the Government had allowed Water Co's to use Banding as a basis of charge - the only fair way to be billed is a meter -pay for what you use - dont pay for what you dont use

flashnazia

I think i have been misunderstood.
I want to check that the water company didn't up my rateable value when I moved in. There is no way I can do this.
And please don't say I'm paranoid. Can you honestly say that utility companies don't rip people off ever? If you do then I can think of countless examples where they have!
Even local authoritys get council tax bands wrong sometimes. If you can appeal them why can't you contest or even check rateable values?

newcook

Psykicpup wrote:

the only fair way to be billed is a meter -pay for what you use - dont pay for what you dont use

I agree with Psykicpup - if you want to make sure you are not being ripped off get a water meter installed. I dont know if I am right on this but I suppose that if you did get a water meter put in and it works out to be a lot cheaper you may be able to approach your supplier and ask to be re-imbursed from previous bills for water that you hadn't used but got charged for...

Cardew

flashnazia wrote:

I think i have been misunderstood.
I want to check that the water company didn't up my rateable value when I moved in. There is no way I can do this.
And please don't say I'm paranoid. Can you honestly say that utility companies don't rip people off ever? If you do then I can think of countless examples where they have!
Even local authoritys get council tax bands wrong sometimes. If you can appeal them why can't you contest or even check rateable values?

I suggest that being paranoid exactly describes the situation.;)

Are you suggesting that the water company and their employees would risk criminal proceedings for conspiracy to defraud? Would this be a company policy to defraud all new owners every time houses are sold; or have they just picked on you?

Can you imagine what would happen if some disgruntled employee ‘blew the whistle’?

If you really want to check your RV you might get it from your solicitor/Building Society and/or the Land Registry. When houses were sold the RV was recorded in the questions the vendor had to answer. In the files containing your deeds you should find the info on your RV

JonathanA

When you moved in, did you not receive an old copy of a water bill from the vendors? It was one of the things we had to supply and have supplied to us when we moved house this year as part of the whole load of questions asked via the solicitors.

On a general note, and this obviously depends on the RV of your house, when we moved, our RV would have led to a water bill of £600 per annum. The first thing I did was get a meter installed and after 6 months usage, I calculate we'll be using about £250 - £275 in water.

May be worth looking into, especially as many water companies say you can revert back to RV within the first 12 months if you want to.

Gorgeous_George

Lots of info here.

Doesn't help OP but does satisfy my curiosity.

IIRC, generally, older houses had lower rateable values. Modern homes, although smaller and cheaper than some older houses had significantly higher rateable values.



GG

Cardew

Gorgeous_George wrote:

Lots of info here.

Doesn't help OP but does satisfy my curiosity.

IIRC, generally, older houses had lower rateable values. Modern homes, although smaller and cheaper than some older houses had significantly higher rateable values.



GG

The Rateable Value was supposed to be based on the notional rent a property could command; and as you suggest modern houses with all 'mod cons' for that era had high RV's.

My house, built in 1988 had a very high RV, whilst some huge old mansions had a much lower RV. Some very large old 'tied' farmhouses had/have a nominal RV of £50 or so. It really was a complete nonsense.

Incidentally had I remained paying water on an unmetered tariff I would be paying £800 a year more than I pay on a metered tariff.

Neemi

Hi I know exactly where you are coming from.

I know what you mean aboyut wanting to check you are not getting ripped off etc. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=4124764#post4124764

I understand how RV works etc and about water meters etc but that is not the point which a lot of peops don't understand. I work in IT and see data records getting messed up all the time. The water company could have easily made a mistake or a user could have easily cocked up the data etc. And it goes unmissed as no one checks and no one seems to want to! etc. Just an example of how it could go wrong. They must have a way of checking that what they have on the system is actually what it should be or not in relation to the RV.

very fustrating. i have to pay 900 pound to my water company for 2 yrs water when I probably only have used about half of that. Yes I know I should have gone on to a meter but that is not the point here!

FlashNazia did you manage to resolve anything?

Because when I read your thread it is exactly my situation!