faulty water meter

deanos

Thats correct but they can take you to court for non payment and get debt collectors in cant they !

moonrakerz

deanos wrote: »

Thats correct but they can take you to court for non payment and get debt collectors in cant they !

Yes, possibly. But in your case I think they would be reluctant to do that, it is their equipment that has failed. I would think with what they are proposing they would be on dodgy ground.

As I said, write to them and say that it is their equipment that has failed, (which presumably they insisted that you use !) so why should you pay for any water - which they cannot prove you used. When did you last pay a bill ? Why should they decide to re bill you for the last 18 months ? Perhaps your meter stopped working the day before you noticed it ! Tell them it was working a week previously, they can't prove that it wasn't any more than they can prove it stopped working 18 months ago ! so why should they re bill you ?

Haggle with them, even if you end up paying xx% you are still well in pocket !

deanos

If it went to court it would be very hard to proove to a judge you havent used any water in 18 months

moonrakerz

deanos wrote: »

If it went to court it would be very hard to proove to a judge you havent used any water in 18 months

I'm not saying that you should claim that you haven't used any water - get them to justify why they should re bill you for the last 18 months. After all, you are the "innocent" party !

sharkmark

I agree with moonrakerz - go for tough angle - you can always decide to back down later if they come back with tough stance themselves...They'll never take it to court - they'd lose - their equipment failed so they cannot simply GUESS at how much water you used...it's VERY unfair and inaccurate if you think about it.

Remember all the water companies are raking it in (except one or two bless 'em) so one water bill is not a big deal.

The only problem you'll have is if you prevented them from inspecting their meter at any point but I doubt you did as it's outside your property so they cannot argue that one either.

Good luck - wish I was in your position!!!

pink10piglet

Thanks for all your comments, I will definately keep you posted. I will try and argue my case and hopefully a good response!

olly300

Argue with them in writing as companies can deny and misinterpret (lie about) things you say on the phone.

Anglia must have a standard tariff they use for unmetered customers depending on your household make-up i.e more number of people equal or greater than number of bedrooms it may be better to argue that you will pay this instead.

If you have no joy take them to the watercouncil https://www.ccwater.org.uk but make sure you have written to them first before you do this, have given the company 21 days to sort out the issue and have a copy of the letter.

lapat

deanos wrote: »

yes they will work it out on you consumption as that is the only way to do it, im sure they can only go back 12 months tho on domestic supplys unless this has changed recently

billing can be back calculated for six years

LizB62

This is probably no help to you, but my electricity meter stopped working immediately after the meter reader checked it in August and me checking it in December, when I received an estimated bill.

I know it was immediately after, because the figure on the August bill was exactly the same as the meter reading in December....

I called Southern Electricity to report the fault - they came to replace the meter and didn't charge me for any electricity between the August bill and the date they replaced the meter in December.

As they said themselves, they had no way of knowing how much electricity I had used.
I had been making a conscious effort to use less electricity, so I was happy that I didn't end up having to argue with them as I'd assumed they would just give me an estimated bill based on my previous (higher usage).

starrydarkangel

You should probably moan about it a bit to get a gesture of goodwill(probably £20-£30 if your lucky).

But the waterboard are well within their rights to back date your bill based on your average daily consumption if the meter stopped working, just in the same way as if their was a leak on your meter which would have cost you 3-4times your normal bill they will re-work yor bill based on your ADC once fixed.

If you take them to court it will cost you lots of money and you wont win as they are well within their rights to do this as you cant prove you didnt use any water.

but i do agree you should probably get them to read your meter sooner than 6 months and try and use as little water as possible so your bills still works out cheaper.