I screwed up & now panicking.

samsmoot

OOH! I got another mention!

Avoiding paying water charges due to failing to provide information will never be actionable in either a civil or criminal court. Just saying.

As for encouraging non-payment, imagine if a thief stole or tried to steal your money then when you got it back from them or refused to give it to them the thief then insisted you give it them instead. The thieves being Severn Trent, the attempted theft done by South Staffs.

You can look for my comments re the above on here, and another consumer forum, but my situation was that they (SS) said they would take me to court to get me ordered by a judge to pay money I did not owe. When I welcomed them to do so they chickened out because they can't obtain advance charges if challenged with a proper Defence, which mine would have been. So now the lying scumbags don't get a penny from me.

As for my friend's situation, she now also pays nothing after challenging ST via the courts. A judge made JCP pay back over £400 which they and Severn Trent had conspired to steal from her. So don't nobody tell me about criminal deception - I know what that looks like and it looks like these two instances of fraudulence.

The amusing thing is, after ST/DWP paid back the money, ST wanted more (obviously). They threatened County Court so a letter was sent saying they should ask JCP for Third Party Deductions to be made (the correct procedure - this time). So, JCP, being sh*t scared of putting another foot wrong, first asked my friend to sign a form agreeing to the Deductions being made: no signy no takey.

And so...no signature, no deductions, no court, no letters to my friend - they write to 'the occupier' instead. They started it, and then got stuffed good and proper.

Other bill payers may lose out financially - I suggest you all write to OFWAT and get some compensation due to your water company's fraudulent activity alienating customers and causing them to keep the money as compensation for all of the harassment, distress, inconvenience, wasted time; expenses such as bus fares, train fares, taxi fares, paper, envelopes printing, stamps, recorded delivery; and the sheer darn cheek.

Plus a little extra as an ex-gratia payment will do nicely, thanks.

Cardew

I rest my case!

McKneff

Could I just ask something.

If it happened with electicity or gas, they are only allowed to back bill for 12 months.

Why not the same with the water.

GM11

Cardew wrote: »

He, and you??, ignore the fact the any loss of revenue suffered by the water companies is simply compensated by increasing the charges for all other customers to raise the same revenue referred to above.

yes to make up the SAME revenue! the point is water was never ever meant to be for profit, however it was decided to sell off to make money for the GOV coffers. water isnt like gas or electric or anything else, liike air it's the one thing you cannot live without. The profits made are just a disgrace, funny how in africa it's considered so important thats it's free (where they can get it). i am all for people paying to cover the cost's etc but i am VERY against something that is so fundamental to life being used to make a totally indefensible amount of money for share holders, and actually i have never said be dishonest i only suggest that they call and offer to pay from x or y date and try not to get too into it with them. ok if the OP does this and is successful and the water company decide to up my bill to cover loss of PROFIT so be it. i would prefer they actually tried fixing the outrageous amount of water they loes through p~~S poor infrastructure, how many years have they been saying the same old tosh about spending xyz a year to fix leaks??? and yet the loss through leaks never comes down!!!!
thats where they could make real savings and manage to lower prices but of course the shareholders would get less for a few years and thats unacceptable.
i realy have had enough of water companies but have never missed a bill, instead i now have my own bore hole and septic tank!! but does that free me from the robbers? NO i get charged for water run off LMFAO how they can charge for that one with a straight face?? i have even asked them to meter my run off so the bill can be accurate but so far they dont seem able

macman

Water supply was in a multitude of private hands long before it became a local public monopoly and then a regulated but privatised regional monopoly.. It's never been 'free', unless you are happy to drink rainwater.

Cardew

McKneff wrote: »

Could I just ask something.

If it happened with electicity or gas, they are only allowed to back bill for 12 months.

Why not the same with the water.

The 12 month back-billing provision doesn't apply with gas and electricity in the OP's case i.e. where the householder has failed to inform the company that they have moved into a property.

In fact the billing code(for gas/electricity) specifically states that the 12 month back-billing provision does not apply where the customer has not informed the company they are in residence.

This situation is straight forward. The OP hasn't paid for water for 3 years because they neglected to tell the company they were in residence.

I appreciate the reason the OP didn't tell them(i.e. they thought their sewerage payment covered both)

Cardew

GM11 wrote: »

yes to make up the SAME revenue! the point is water was never ever meant to be for profit, however it was decided to sell off to make money for the GOV coffers.

The water Privatisation Act was badly conceived and has IMO been little short of a disaster since.

However whilst the water industry undoubtedly was sold off to raise revenue for Maggie. The whole point of selling shares in the regional companies to investors was for those investors to make money - why else would shareholders invest?

Rants like yours and those of samsmoot and urging people not to pay water bills simply mean others will pay more.

GM11

but's that is the crux of my point ! there should be ZERO profit in something so fundamental to life as water. and who said dont pay? i said offer to pay! they are not going to go bust with what the OP already pay's for sewage

Cardew

GM11 wrote: »

but's that is the crux of my point ! there should be ZERO profit in something so fundamental to life as water. and who said dont pay? i said offer to pay! they are not going to go bust with what the OP already pay's for sewage

There should also be no war, famine or disease in the world!

Get on to our political masters about the water industry and you will have plenty of support.

This is an internet forum, not a court of law. So stop trying to hide behind semantics, you are encouraging the OP to illegally avoid paying a valid bill.

The water company's profits are guaranteed, so the upshot of your suggestion and samsmoot's urging that nobody should pay water bills mean the rest of us will pay more, both in covering the missing revenue, and legal fees.

samsmoot

Cardew wrote: »

samsmoot's urging that nobody should pay water bills mean the rest of us will pay more, both in covering the missing revenue, and legal fees.

I suggest you lobby your MP to get the law changed if you don't like the results of the current one.

Or do you think that failing to communicate with a water company is actually a criminal offence? Or that not telling the whole truth is actionable? I don't believe anyone's comments on this thread suggest doing anything criminal - we can leave that up to the water companies. Severn Trent's getting fined £47,000,000 for lying to the Regulator springs to mind as a start.

And here's something else: unlawful Third Party Deductions are still being taken from the poor, often without their knowledge. You won't see this in the papers, and you won't see it on here too much either. Don't forget - folks on here are what you would call literate and capable - most of the poor (unfortunately and disgracefully) are uneducated and inept. Those that are able to identify a problem seldom can effectively deal with it - hence my involvement and the court claim - only way it could be done and I was the only one willing and able to do it. Crime-busting of this type should not be left to chancers like me.

I personally know of at least two other instances of TPDs being unlawfully made, and help and advice have been offered - but apathy is also often a symptom of poverty.

Do you all not get that there is a criminal conspiracy going on right under your noses? Or is it just that it is so much easier to have a go at those individuals who fail to adhere to your high standards of veracity?

You worry about the rest of you paying more - how selfish is that? Your few pennies matter more than the criminal conspiracy? No care that that the big boys are screwing the poor and getting away with it? Certainly looks like it.