Rateable Values.

marybishop

Not sure if this helps anyone here at all but thought i'd add my bit!

Went on water meter a few years back (long story, wont bore you with it). In that time we have had two leaks in front garden (leaking joints), down to us as on our property and not covered by insurance as not inside property. Recently had a bill in with an estimated reading which was higher than the actual reading on the meter(!) Phoned them up to give them correct reading so bill adjusted (we still owed them money but not quite as much!).

New statement for the forthcoming year arrives saying that our new monthly payment will increase from £48 to £111:eek: I get straight back on to them to ask how can this be - turns out it had been worked out on the estimated reading:rolleyes: Will be amended to £66/mth! When I asked what we would be paying if we weren't on a meter I was told based on the 'RV' of property (3 bed semi) and after debt was cleared it would be £22/mth. I was fuming. Then asked how I go about having the b****y thing removed!

Wrote letter to water board asking them to remove the meter but was told couldn't be done but that the matter had been looked into and apparently their 'system' had picked up on the period when we'd had a leak and based the figures on that. Now been amended to £38/mth (now told we'd be paying £26/mth if not on meter).

Not sure that helps the OP but got it off my chest!!

needaname_3

I completely agree with Flashnazia and Neemi,

I live in a one bed flat and yet the RV is higher than a 3 bed house a few minutes walk away. While I understand that this is perfectly possible this does not mean it is correct.

I audit for a living, including a number of large PLC companies and utility companies, and even the best controlled company will make mistakes. They may not be intentional but will without doubt occur. The amount of money involved may be significant to an individual, but to a large company it is simply not material unless they were incorrect for every household, so they have no interest in performing these checks of RVs and nor would their auditors other than for a small sample of customers. This is fact, not paranoia.

My water company has told me that my RV is correct, however given the number of times they have quite definitely lied to me, (whether from intent or idleness is really irrelevant to me), I no longer trust them.

I am very familiar with the Ofwat website, but I cannot believe that this information is not available under The Freedom of Information Act.

If anyone has been able to check their RV I would most appreciate knowing. My property was previously used as an old person's home, and so I could well believe they are incorrectly charging each flat the price of the whole block. I would very much like to check for myself.

Thanks.

Cardew

needaname wrote:

I completely agree with Flashnazia and Neemi,

I live in a one bed flat and yet the RV is higher than a 3 bed house a few minutes walk away. While I understand that this is perfectly possible this does not mean it is correct.

I audit for a living, including a number of large PLC companies and utility companies, and even the best controlled company will make mistakes. They may not be intentional but will without doubt occur. The amount of money involved may be significant to an individual, but to a large company it is simply not material unless they were incorrect for every household, so they have no interest in performing these checks of RVs and nor would their auditors other than for a small sample of customers. This is fact, not paranoia.

My water company has told me that my RV is correct, however given the number of times they have quite definitely lied to me, (whether from intent or idleness is really irrelevant to me), I no longer trust them.

I am very familiar with the Ofwat website, but I cannot believe that this information is not available under The Freedom of Information Act.

If anyone has been able to check their RV I would most appreciate knowing. My property was previously used as an old person's home, and so I could well believe they are incorrectly charging each flat the price of the whole block. I would very much like to check for myself.

Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.

I understand your concern which you rightly think could be attributed to the 'c0ck up' theory; although it is pertinent to point out that Flashnazia very clearly implied it was a conspiracy to defraud; which I suggested was paranoia!

In a number of threads I have 'banged on' about the stupidity of the RV rating system in which the valuations had no connection with logic. Your suggestion that each flat in your block somehow got the same valuation as the original nursing home is plausible, although IMO not probable.

I suspect that when the RV system finished in 1990 the water companies were not on the same computer database they currently use(if indeed they were on a computer), and they simply manually inputted RVs into their records.

If these RV records were still available, there is no doubt that you would be able to access them under the Freedom of Information act. However do they still exist? Under the legislation that introduced compulsory metering, I seriously doubt there was any requirement for companies to keep that information – certainly not for 17 years. So if they got it wrong initially, they have no way of checking it.

I doubt also if many councils have kept their records either.

I recall with absolute certainty the original legislation stated that basing un-metered charges on the RV was an interim measure and the companies had 10 years to come up with another system. However I understand that this restriction was dropped some while later and, as I had a meter fitted, I didn’t follow this up.

In your case, have all the flats the same high RV valuation? Is there no current resident that lived in the flats in 1990?

For those of us with a property at the time of the change in legislation, there was no change in the way we were billed. Had the RV suddenly risen people would have immediately noticed. I cannot but think that someone in your block would have also noticed had this happened.

There must be a record of the RV on the files of the sales of the flats – It was a prominent question in the particulars of sale when RV was the basis for water charges. A request to your solicitor or mortgage holder might elicit this information. The file will contain details of all sales from the date of conversion onwards.

If your suggestion that each flat, at conversion, was given the RV of the nursing home(which incidentally as a business would have been extremely high – much more than a private residence) would not someone have challenged it? In the unlikely event that did happen, and wasn't disputed then, I don’t think there is any way it can be retrospectively re-assessed.

Lastly although not relevant to the point you are making, is there a reason why you don’t get a(free) meter fitted? If it doesn’t work out cheaper you can change back within a year. If for any reason a meter cannot be fitted, you will get an assessed charge; which, for a 1 bed flat, is likely to be low.

j14dtc

I can sympathise with the original post. I received my waer bill yesterday and would not normally question it. However I met with a neighbour and saw their bill (I live in a small 2 bed attic flat in a conversion of a georgian house), they live in a 3 bed terrace, yet their bill for Wastewater is £140 whereas mine is £323. I have contacted the water company who tell me their is notihng I can do about it, thought they do agree that my rateable value (£293( does seem very high - i have now requested a meter.

j14dtc

My concernis that the original rateable value is incorrect and I have been paying far too much for years - yet there is no method of recourse?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I would agree that an RV of £293 is very high for a small attic flat - but as I have indicated above the whole RV system was full of anomalies; I have seen a huge farmhouse with acres of land with an RV of £50.

The only way I suggest that you can find out if your original RV was wrong is to get hold of the deeds etc from your solicitor. In the file there should be a record of the RV when the property was converted.