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

Cardew

tafvs wrote: »

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

Welsh water are not a non-profit making company - They made £107 million profit last year.

If I understand you correctly, the upstairs flat must have applied for a meter; however it was fitted to your supply by mistake. The upstairs flat started receiving metered bills so had no idea that the meter was fitted incorrectly.

This means you hadn't applied for a meter until just recently and were getting unmetered bills - which as far as you were concerned was correct.

You could look at it that the mistake hasn't disadvantaged you in any way.

IMO you don't have strong grounds for any rebate. You hadn't applied for a meter and were content to pay unmeasured charges.

Therefore the £500 goodwill payment is surprising and generous gesture.

That said I can understand that you would want to turn the situation to your advantage.

P.S. You could only claim back 6 years, even if you had grounds for a refund, and I don't think you have those grounds.

Gothicfairy

I second Cardew's views. If you had applied for a meter years ago and for some reason things were not dealt with then yes , I would say ok you might have a claim for back payment but as it was your rate of charge was correct as you yourself had not applied for a meter.

I would take the £500 as that is more then most water companies would give you as the mistake is not really anything to do with you.ie the last tenant ( or so) applied for the meter and didn't get the correct service, they would have a right to complain.