Water Overcharging - Advice Sought

zune

I am a customer of Yorkshire Water and have lived in the same property for 20 years. My water charges have always been based upon the rateable value of the property, which was built in 1959. The property is a detached bungalow with 4 bedrooms and is occupied by myself, my wife and 8 year old daughter.

Like most consumers i am under increased pressures to save money and when my bill arrived this year i was naturally unhappy at the year on year increase of 8.3%. The bill this year for Water and Sewerage has risen to £1,107.20 - almost £100 per month.

I have always paid my bills by instalments and treated them much like council tax as an unavoidable fact of life. Although i realised it was possible to have a meter fitted i was under the impression the costs would be approximately the same. I spoke in passing to my neighbour whose house was built in 1991 and has a meter fitted. When he told me what his bill was i was quite shocked to be honest - it was around one quarter of my own for a household of two residents with a similar number of bedrooms, toilets, bathrooms etc.

I was then prompted to contact Yorkshire Water and enquire about a meter. This morning i received the information pack and have also visited the ccwater.org.uk site and run the estimated bill spreadsheet (very useful, by the way - why do the water companies not provide this I wonder?). Even allowing for a margin of error it seems a metered water supply would cut my bills in half. I am therefore in the process of applying to have one fitted as soon as possible.

I am very angry indeed that my water company has made no attempt whatsoever in 20 years to make it clear that i could have made such a saving. In fact in the information they sent me (nb. only upon request) they have included a table which indicates what potential savings there may be.

I am incensed that i have never been given access to this before - had i realised i have been paying TWICE as much as i need have i would have switched to a meter 20 years ago, as any sane person would. It is only in the last 3 years that my bill has contained any reference whatsoever to the possibility of a meter being installed.

They also include information which categorically states that even if i was a high usage household with six inhabitants i would be saving money. Remember - this is information which i have had to explicitly request from them and was not - nor would ever have been offered until i enquired. Moreover the rateable value upon which i have been billed for 20+ years according to their table - is one upon which i could not possibly have NOT saved money by having a meter installed - and this is by the figures THEY supply me.

So why didn't they make me aware of this? Clearly as a monopoly they are quite comfortable knowing that myself and no doubt many other unaware households like ours are paying 2x what they need be and have made NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER to redress or inform me - not surprisingly.

My questions are therefore as follows :

- Do i have any redress in law against Yorkshire Water for this overcharging over an extended period of time?
- Would i be able to identify other consumers in a similar situation and progress a class action for compensation (my conservative estimate is that they have effectively overcharged me between £5,000 and £8,000 over the past 20 years (at todays prices)?
- Are there any similar cases to my own and what has been the outcome of these?
- Do you have any other advice in relation to my situation.

Thanks you all in advance. Sorry for the lengthy post.

meer53

I received information from Yorkshire Water with my bill a number of years ago about having a meter fitted. I took them up on the offer and have saved considerably. The information about water meters has also been on their website, along with all the other information available, press, internet, cost comparison calculator etc, why do you think you would have any success with taking them to court for not letting you know of their services ? Surely it's your responsibility to make sure that you're getting the best deal from a company ? You say that you were under the impression that a water meter would cost the same as you are paying now, did you never actually look into this ?

I don't think you'd have any success at all to be honest. Water meters haven't been available for the last 20 years, don't know when they brought them in exactly but i would say within the last 5 to 10 years at the most. Someone may be able to correct me if i'm wrong.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

The first thing you need to appreciate is that it doesn't matter a jot to the water companies if you are metered or not.

The revenue Yorkshire water can raise, and hence their profit, is strictly controlled by the Regulator(Ofwat). So there is no financial incentive for them to charge you extra for being charged on your Rateable Value(RV) i.e. if you and a thousand others paid £500 pa less they will raise that £500k by a small increase other charges.

IMO you have no chance of any retrospective rebate. Indeed when the question of retrospective rebates for Surface Water Drainage(SWD)* was raised with Ofwat they agreed it shouldn't be retrospective. The reasoning is that the revenue for any rebates would have to be collected from current water customers, many of whom would not have been customers for the period the rebates
are being paid.

Without being harsh, you have not been overcharged and it is a case of Caveat Emptor.

I am surprised if Yorkshire water didn't include mention of meters on their bills and literature until 3 years ago. Are you sure about that statement? My company(Severn Trent) has had it in the small print for 20+ years.


*Many people failed to claim relief for SWD.

Water meters have been compulsory since April 1990 on new properties - I had mine fitted soon after that date.

macman

One could equally ask, why have you as a consumer made no effort in 20 years to find out this info for yourself?
Why did you think anyone would have a meter fitted if savings were not possible for many households?

BackOnTrack

Yorkshire have installed over 100,000 meters, around 5% of their total household customers, over the past 4 years after being requested to do so by their customers so it's hardly something they are keeping secret.

Yorkshire also have this page on their website, first time I have visited their website and it took me about a minute to find:

http://www.yorkshirewater.com/your-water-services/water-meters/water-meter-calculator.aspx

This shows very clearly how much you could be expected to be charged.

It really just looks like you haven't made any effort to find out if you could save money by getting a meter installed and now that you have found out that you can save money you want to blame Yorkshire water for it. The simple facts are that your water company doesn't know how much water you use, it doesn't know how many people live in your house so it has no idea if you can save water or not by changing to a meter. The only person that can have a reasonable idea if you will save money or not with a meter is you and you didn't bother to find out.

DVardysShadow

zune wrote: »

....

My questions are therefore as follows :

- Do i have any redress in law against Yorkshire Water for this overcharging over an extended period of time?
- Would i be able to identify other consumers in a similar situation and progress a class action for compensation (my conservative estimate is that they have effectively overcharged me between £5,000 and £8,000 over the past 20 years (at todays prices)?
- Are there any similar cases to my own and what has been the outcome of these?
- Do you have any other advice in relation to my situation.

In my experience, many people who think they are being smart by not having a meter [how dare they make us pay for what we use ... ] end up feeling rather sore when they take a proper look at the price of water via a meter. If I were you, I would complain that the water is contaminated with sour grapes.

monicaeddwards

I have also experienced this kind of problem. Since I can't interrogate what's going on, all I did is to conserve water in order to lessen my home expenses. I used glass whenever I brush my teeth and not just leaving the faucet on. With the help of my framed shower enclosures, I saved water in cleaning those mess outside my shower area. And also because of this, I saved time. These are just some of the ways I conserved water. For others, it is not important but this tiny little act would simply help with your water bills. I hope this help!