Thames Water made an error - am I liable?

johnpacker

Hi MSE's.

I am after a bit of advice.

I pay by my waterbill via Direct Debit and last year paid £5.15 per month which is the amount that Thames Water setup. This was because the waterbill for the year came in the post and was £61.89. This is obviously very low - but I was unaware of that at the time as in the previous year we had been paying a lot more but that was because of a debt we had built at a previous property.

This year I've got through the bill and it's setup the direct debits at £66.72 per month - a 1,192% inrease!!

I have just phoned up and apparently the reason for this is that the Thames Water system setup the bill INCORRECTLY last year - so I've had to carry across £375.26 when the system has rectified the error this year. According to the lady I spoke to, she has seen this happen quite a few times.

Although £66 isn't a huge amount of money I don't really have the budget to accept such an increase and don't really see why I should have to pay for their error. If I had got the correct bill in the first place then I would understand - but as far as I am concerned I got a bill which I paid in full and had no idea that paying £5 is less than what is usually due.

The person I spoke to has lowered the direct debit to £30 - which is what I am told most people pay and suggested I write a letter of complaint but would like to see if people think that I am liable (as obviously I did use water!) or not.

Thanks
John

macman

Metered or RV billing? Yes, they can back bill you up to 6 years-if the billing is correct then you have no justification not to pay. However they should give you at least a year to recover the arrears, or whatever period the debt accrued over. Did not alarm bells ring with a water bill of only £60pa though? That is impossibly low.
If the DD is still too low to cover the actual usage and recover the debt, then that won't help you in the long term. I'm not clear what your actual bill is for the year without debt.
If the error resulted in a credit of £375.26 in your favour, would you not expect TW to pay that to you? I think you would.