Thames Water bill problem

mart.vader

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Just a small bit of reassurance, water cannot be cut off. You may be reduced to a very low pressure but they cannot cut off your supply.

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No, they can't either cut off your water nor can you be put on a low pressure.

samsmoot

I understand that technically it is the occupier that is usually responsible, so although your water company might legitimately be able to make a court claim you could definitely ask for the landlord to be added or substituted, and the judge may well agree to that. But even before it got to a hearing you could ask for arbitration - or if a claim looks very likely and you prefer to avoid the court route altogether you could agree to pay under protest then say you simply don't have the money and then apply to the water company's charitable trust for help paying your bill. You could, in the meantime, make a claim against your landlord for whatever he should have handed over for water charges. You might even make a profit if you can show you are poor enough to merit the help.

samsmoot

Oh yes - do they even know who you are? Simply not telling them is a good idea. When they send the bill for your BF just tell them the truth, ie that he has nothing to do with any of it.

Dizzyduck

mart.vader wrote: »

No, they can't either cut off your water nor can you be put on a low pressure.

True, but they will pass the debt to a Debt Collection Agency.

mart.vader

Dizzyduck wrote: »

True, but they will pass the debt to a Debt Collection Agency.

Yes, I know.

I was correcting the incorrect advice that they can reduce the water pressure to a house if you don't pay the bill.

They couldn't reduce the pressure to a single house even if it was allowed.

In the "bad old days" they used to fit a device called a "trickle cap" which would cut the Flow (but not the pressure), so that it took half-an-hour to fill a kettle, but this is now not practised or outlawed.

As far as this relates to this thread, the DCA might have a little difficulty in getting someone to pay a water bill, when their tenancy agreement says it's already included in the rent.