Am I paying too much ?

giggsy1978

I live in a 1 bedroom flat and since I have been living here (4 years) I have been paying £45.13 per month for water and sewage. I recently spoke to my mother who lives less than a mile away and she lives in a 3 bedroom house and pay £35 per month. Is this right ? should i be due a refund and my payments reviewed ?

Cardew

Do you have a meter?

annie1975_2

giggsy1978 wrote: »

I live in a 1 bedroom flat and since I have been living here (4 years) I have been paying £45.13 per month for water and sewage. I recently spoke to my mother who lives less than a mile away and she lives in a 3 bedroom house and pay £35 per month. Is this right ? should i be due a refund and my payments reviewed ?

Blimey we pay £26 a month,we are a family of 3..Does seem pretty expensive.

macman

Assuming that you are both on RV billing, the size of your property has absolutely no relation to the RV. The RV is fixed and cannot be challenged.
If one property is metered and one is RV, then the comparison is flawed anyway.
If you are the sole occupant, then you will almost certainly be better off with a meter.

giggsy1978

it is just myself and my reindeer living here, I have asked for a meter to be installed and they said they would but that was 6 months ago.

it's outrageous that I have to pay more than a family of 3!

i just rang them and I applied for the meter in October 2011....."got lost" apparently. Adviser told me that I would be saving over £100 per year which I work out to myself having overpaid them by £400....chances of getting that back.....0

macman

giggsy1978 wrote: »

it is just myself and my reindeer living here, I have asked for a meter to be installed and they said they would but that was 6 months ago.

it's outrageous that I have to pay more than a family of 3!

i just rang them and I applied for the meter in October 2011....."got lost" apparently. Adviser told me that I would be saving over £100 per year which I work out to myself having overpaid them by £400....chances of getting that back.....0

So why have you waited nearly a year to pursue the meter install?
It should take no more than 6 weeks.
No, you won't be able to get any backdated credit.
It's not 'outrageous'...the water utility do not set the RV, it's nothing to do with them.

giggsy1978

so who sets the RV ?

Cardew

giggsy1978 wrote: »

so who sets the RV ?

The local council used to set them.

The last time they were set for most properties in England and Wales was in 1973. Although for new houses(i.e. post 1973) the RV was set when built - until 1990 when the RV system was stopped.

RV was the notional rent a property would command at the time it was set; nothing to do with its sale value - it was the way of collecting local(i.e. Council) taxes. In April 1990 the poll tax was introduced and that was superceded by the present Council Tax band system.

Gothicfairy

and before you ask....No there is no way to change or challenge them now.