Paying Neighbours Water Bill for nearly 12 yrs

KnittingNancy

Hello, I would really appreciate some help.
My neighbour has just advised I am paying her water bill. We brought our house new, so the mistake must have been made by the developers/utility company.
Where do I stand?
Do I have to pay any shortfall?
Am I liable for the whole 12 years if so?
Is the developer responsible?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Is your neighbour paying your water bill? and have they been there for 12 years?

The developer is of course responsible, it happens quite a bit in blocks of flats. They tell the Water company which meter belongs to which house.

They can work out from the two meters who has gained, and who has lost.

In theory they could go back 6 years and charge you for any shortfall, and of course give a rebate to your neighbour.

How they will sort this out in practice is up to the company and their policy. They may well write off any shortfall.

I would wait and see what solution they propose and decide on a course of action when you have the details.

KnittingNancy

I haven't had any comunication from my water company yet, just a conversation with my neighbour. We live in a block of 4 houses and apparently they are all mixed up. Should be fun. I just could do without a big bill, we are struggling as it is.

Cardew

I doubt if you will be faced with a big bill, and if you are, they must give you a long period to pay it off.

However the ball is in the water company's court.

Just a tip, don't agree anything on the phone unless it is very clearly to your advantage; get any proposal in writing.

blossomhill_2

We had this when the flat next door was empty, we didn't have to pay anything back so I guess the water company just lost the money

Gothicfairy

I would think they will do a back office process called meter exchange..
They will assign the new meter ( correct meter) to the correct property with a starting read.
That meter will then become "new" if you like and they will take another reading about a week or a month later ( or ask you to do it) they will then work out your average daily consumption and take it from there, it is very rare that a customer is given a large bill it is more likely it will either be called a wash or you might even get a refund if you are found to have been vastly over paying.

Let the water company do their thing and take it from there but as has already been said......do it all in writing but that should be easy as it is a back office thing and they do work in writing more often then not.

Infidel

In a related matter, we are ALL paying for the water companies many leaks.

(walked past one several days ago where it was pouring out like a river - it was still the same today).

skintandscared_2

We live in a block of 6 flats and questioned our bill as it was huge. They came out and investigated and discovered we were being charged for the wrong meter. They refunded the excess we had paid and wrote off the shortfall that the other flat owed, so we both started from zero with new revised direct debits. I'm not saying all water companies will do this, but Veolia did it for us (about 6 months ago).

deanos

Cardew wrote: »

The developer is of course responsible, it happens quite a bit in blocks of flats. They tell the Water company which meter belongs to which house.

Not strictly true , when meters are installed by the water company they should flow test to check its going to the correct plot, saying that developers sometimes change plot numbers or addresses which can cause problems

Ash_McCloud

This happened to a friend of mine a few years ago, two neighbouring houses with the wrong meters assigned.

The person who'd been paying too much got a rebate. The person who hadn't been paying enough didn't have to pay anything back, the slate was wiped clean and they started again with fresh readings.