Meter is zero and we're moving out

allie_cabab

We are moving out of our house so we were trying to sort out all the final bills.

When we checked the water meter it was all zeros. The water company are now trying to charge us £17 per person per month as the average amount people use. However we're students, dont have a garden to use loads of water on, dont have a bath, barely use the washing machine as several people do their washing at the their parents house. It seems ridiculous that they want to charge us so much!

They are trying to say that we should have checked the water meter but it was installed in 2006 so must have been at zero all that time! We've only lived here a year.

Who's responsibility is the water meter??? Can they now charge us all this money because the meter wasn't working???

thanks

SnowMan

I'm no expert but I expect that both you and the water company have responsibilities.

According to Ofwat here

'If you have a water meter, it should be read at least once a year, and read by your water company at least once every two years. Some water companies might read your meter more frequently'

In terms of what your water is likely to have cost had the meter been operating normally you can estimate it from the spreadsheet on the Consumer Council for Water website here although I expect that is based on current charges rather than charges that applied over the past year.

Some information on water can be found on the CAB website here, it includes information on how to complain about your water company.

It is also worth checking your water company's code of practice (i.e. how they meet the requirements of the Guaranteed Standards scheme). If they have not met any of these standards that will strengthen your bargaining position.

Ultimately I expect you will have to pay a reasonable amount for the water you have used, that of course doesn't mean the figure the water company are trying to charge you.

deanos

Its either a faulty meter or been fitted on a redundant supply, as its 0 and not worked that's not your problem, they usually install a new one then do a check read in a few days and work out your consumption that way, they cant "guess" what you might have used

The meter would have been read and as its reading 0 it should have flagged up on the meters reader computer, or flagged up a void property/faulty meter inspection to investigate

Cardew

deanos wrote: »

Its either a faulty meter or been fitted on a redundant supply,

Or been tampered with?

deanos

Cardew wrote: »

Or been tampered with?

Possibly, but its hard to remove if you don't have the correct tool.