Whats the situation with a broken water meter?

l_m_g

Hi,

I moved in to a new house and recorded the water meter reading. I have provided the water reading to the water companies online reading service and meter readers have also been out and read the meter from time to time. The problem is that the meter has always read 0 and therefore my bills (paid by direct debit) have always been for the standing charges since no water usage has been recorded.

Since the meter has never recorded any water usage, can the water company make me pay for an unknown amount of water?

Thoughts please.

-L

Cardew

That would be a common scenario with an unoccupied house, so that is presumably why the 'computer' has not picked up on it; I am surprised the meter readers haven't made an observation though.

They obviously have the power to make you pay for water from the time you have occupied the house; I suspect at the assessed rate they use for properties where they can't fit meters for some reason.

deanos

Sounds like a faulty meter if you have been living there a while it should have used some consumption , i would ring up and explain, they will send a bill on an estimated usage based from the consumption of the new meter you have fitted, well thats what would happen round here anyway

The meter reader should have picked up on the problem if the prop looks occupied , but alot of company's use agency or 3rd party readers so they cant be bothered to do there job properly half of the time

msmicawber

If the meter is faulty, as it sounds, then they'll come and replace it. You can then take a reading after, say, a couple of weeks or a month to give an indication of your average daily usage and they'll bill you on that basis. That's certainly what happens when it's the other way round and the meter's whizzing round as though you were filling an olympic sized swimming pool.

emweaver

I had this and they replaced my water., They then took 2 readings a few wks apart and worked out a average daily consumption then based my bill on this.