Billed from reading on the wrong meter for 4 years - advice please

j69ant

Hi Folks,

I’m after a little advice regarding an issue that has come to light when my partner recently moved house.

Basically on the day of moving, we attempted to take a final meter reading for the water.

While I was taking the reading, I noticed the meter was moving ( which it shouldn’t have been as we had locked the property up ) so investigated further.

Basically the meter ( and serial number ) she had been provided, and for which the readings have been taken for the past 4 years doesn’t relate to her property.

After trial and error of testing the other meters, I did manage to locate the correct meter.

Once this came to light, she then mentioned that her water bills have been increasing every 6 months for 4 years..

What started off at £18 for the first 6 months in 2007 on a month by month direct debit, was upto £35 a month!!! – And this was with her conserving water to try and reduce these costs, as she was aware her bills were getting bigger. I wasn’t aware of this, or would have raised the issue with the utility company sooner.

Basically she has been paying for another persons water for 4 years. I wasn’t too worried and thought it would be a simple case of comparing the readings and working out the cost difference. Based on her living along and paying that much for the water, she would just be credited.

When first highlighting the issue, the water company were very helpful, saying they would investigate and judging on the amounts payed, issue a credit.

In terms of the actual water used by my partner… She has lived there alone for 4 years. She does a weekly clothes wash on a Sunday – 1 lights, 1 darks.
She has never once had a bath in the property in 4 years ( shes a shower person ) but works in a leisure centre.. Hence she takes 75% of her showers at the leisure centre after work, not at home.

After a few days the water company got back to us and said there was an issue with the readings ( they wouldn’t say what ) and made her a token gesture of £144 credit.
She asked where this figure had come from, and they said it was a token gesture. When she asked for her “legitimate” readings from the correct meter - the person got quite annoyed and told her if she didn’t wish to accept that amount, she would end up with less… Needless to say this upset her and I have had all future correspondence..

After 5 hours of calls , various department transfers etc, they have finally admitted that they have no ideal what water she actually used !. They correct meter was recorded as unused on their , hence they have no record of any usage on it !

In terms of payments.. Over 4 years, she was billed just short of £1200 – Approx. £300 per annum.

This figure was billed for 1 person, in a 2 bedroomed house, washing twice a week and showering there the 2 -3 days she wasn’t at work..

She has also spent a lot of time at my house in the past 8 months..

After over 5 hours of conversations and £15 in call costs they have offered another £20 as a good will gesture.

I was advised by one of their customer representatives that the average water usage for a single person is £15-£20 a month… But they aren’t even offering that!

Can anybody offer any further advise ?

Thanks

Cardew

Contact the Consumer Council for Water - and ask they take up your case, they are excellent.

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

j69ant

Thanks..

Will give it a go

Gothicfairy

Before going to the CCW you need to write to the water company and go through their complaints process as the CCW will only put you back through that to begin with.

Also the monthly amounts mean nothing at all..you want to talk about usage and cubic meters not payment plans as that really has very little to do with usage.

But to be honest I am not really sure what the problem is as paying about £300 per year for water is not that bad as some of that figure is going to be SWD and we don't know what band that is on and there is also standing charges etc.

The problem you are going to have though is you can not prove her usage and she has paid the bills presented so must have thought them fair at the time ?

I would write though as a cross complaint and ask them to explain in writing before doing anything else. Calling is never going to be the best option with something like this and £20 compo is all they have to offer for the calls etc as they offer a email address and postal address so you made the choice to call.

visidigi

if they have no idea, maybe it would be fair to say look at how much the bill would have been on a fixed price unmetered setup and use that as a price base, and credit the difference.

They need to get rid of the complaint, they'll do their level best to do so at the minimum cost to them...its just an idea...

peachyprice

So has anyone actually been submitting readings from her meter, or have the water co. registered the meter to two addresses?

If they've got her meter registered to a different address surely they can use those readings to work out how much she's used?

j69ant

Thanks for the replies.

I have checked the standard charge for properties that are unable to have meters fitted and the annual charge is £255.

According to them, they have no previous readings off the "correct meter". Their records show that incorrect meter is tied to the house - which they have now admitted was incorrect. The water company have been taking meter readings ( approx every 6 months ) and adjusting the monthly direct debit accordingly - Which has increased every 6 months for the past 4 years !. I have asked why they cant use the readings off the correct meter, but they had it recorded as "unused" and not allocated to a property. - hence no previous recordings on file.

chipp

This may not be relevant to water bills but if you're lucky a similar principle will apply.

When I switched my gas the new company couldn't relate the meter point ref number I gave them (taken from a recent bill) to the MPRN they believed related to the property. Turns out when the meter was changed the gas companies' central database was updated to reflect a new MPRN but my gas supplier continued using the old MPRN to bill me. It took a bit of sorting out but the end result was that the old gas company told me it was illegal for them to have billed me for a meter I didn't have so they were obliged to refund me. Wish I'd waited longer to switch now, could have had free gas for years!

Good luck.

mart.vader

I just posted this on another thread, but I've modified it to fit this one.

Don't know what Water Co.s area you are in but, I was just looking at the Customer Promise for South West Water. :- http://www.southwestwater.co.uk/medi...er_Promise.pdf

"No. 15. Money paid in error. If it is discovered that you have wrongly paid money for a service which we have not provided, we will refund all of the money paid for a period of up to 10 years before the mistake was discovered. Interest will also be included if the period in question was over 12 months."

Arguably, your case is not for a "service" that they did not carry out, but because they metered the wrong property, you have been put to extra expense (and trouble).

Personally, I would show them any evidence that will enable you and them to compromise on a fair charge for your property, and ask for interest on your over-paid charges.

If South West Water can do it, then so can your Water Co !

dogshome

In cases where a customer requests that a Water Meter be fitted, but then on survey it is found that one cannot be fitted for practical reasons, the customer can opt to pay on a fixed formula caclulated on an 'average' metered use, which is based the number of persons in the property.

With the suppliers lack records for the meter, it would seem the only fair way the supplier can bill 4 years use, is to base it on their established formula for single person occupancy.

However, as the supplier has been less than forthcoming by not immediately offering this solution, I would suggest that you independantly establish just what their 'Single person formula' is, before telling them that this is how you want the problem resolved

Also On each April 1st over the 4 years the prices would have increased, so you want a detailed bill listing the charge for each year to work out just what your partner is owed

tafvs

I Applied for a water meter this November 2012 and the engineer discovered my flat already had a meter connected in 2001. The only other flat (upstairs) did not have a meter fitted. Unaware of this I have been paying for unmeasured charges since 2003 and the measured charge bill based on my actual consumption has been sent to the other flat.
I asked Welsh Water for a refund, they acknowledged (in writing)" I appreciate that your water consumption has been monitored for some time and that during this period you've been asked to pay an unmeasured charge" but because I had not been the one who applied for the original meter and it appears the meter was fitted to the wrong stopcock in 2001 they offered me £500 as "an act of good faith"
I believe the company, as a non profit making company, should refund me the overpayments I made which total close to £2,000 based upon 100 months payments of unmeasured charges.
Am I right in pursuing a full refund?

Thank you