Water Board sent us to debt collectors during a dispute.

EmJ86

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could give us some advice?

We had to move out of our (rented) property in May this year, so we're temporarily living with family whilst we're sorting out somewhere else to live.

We got a final bill from Southern Water for £237.92 which covered about 4 months, the bills before this weren't anywhere near as high but they had slowly increased since we'd been there. Didn't think much of the increase in the other bills but a few weeks before we were asked to leave we noticed there was a water ingress coming up through the kitchen floor tiles in the middle of the kitchen...!

We emailed Southern Water and told them we're disputing this final bill due to the fact there was a water ingress in the kitchen. We're a family of three (due to be four in about 4 weeks time) and have always been very careful with the amount of water we used. The final bill said we were using X amount of units per day which was the equivalent of a four person household (inc 3 adults...) when we're two adult and a 3 year old...

They acknowledged that there was an issue so said they'd look into it by asking the landlord to gain entry etc. Haven't heard anything since middle of June, until we got a letter from Advantis debt collecting agency (dated 28th October) trying to recover the debt..!

I'm fuming about this as we've been waiting for them in investigate the issue, now they've sent us to debt collectors for the outstanding amount..?! Can anyone give us some advice as to how we should proceed? I know from experience, not to call anyone and to get everything in writing but I don't know who we should contact first....

:undecided:undecided

EmJ86

Can someone please help?!

Cardew

Contact the Consumer Council for Water - it is their job to sort out disputes, and they are very good. A phone call will normally suffice, but ensure you have all details to hand.


http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

bryanb

Was the (probable) leak on the consumer side of the meter?
Did you report it to the landlord in writing?

EmJ86

bryanb wrote: »

Was the (probable) leak on the consumer side of the meter?
Did you report it to the landlord in writing?

We sent them a text message telling them there was a funny sound under the kitchen tiles, they sent over someone to have a look at the washing machine as it was near there but the washing machine wasn't the problem, it progressively got worse and now we've moved out we don't know what happened with it as they've sold the property (hense why we had to move out).

The landlord liked to do everything verbally and we didn't have a postal address for them, so we either emailed them or text them any problems we had (they never responded to emails...)

Well the meter was outside the property, along the footpath in front of the house so I assume it was on the consumer side. I'm not too sure as we never found out where it was coming from and still trying to find out where it was coming from.

EmJ86

Cardew wrote: »

Contact the Consumer Council for Water - it is their job to sort out disputes, and they are very good. A phone call will normally suffice, but ensure you have all details to hand.


http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

Never heard of them before, will have a look and see what I can do. Thanks.

Cardew

OP,
I would add that if it was a leak, the issue is between you and the landlord and as the bill is in your name, you are responsible.

However most companies will give a once only 'goodwill' allowance; especially since they stated:

They acknowledged that there was an issue so said they'd look into it by asking the landlord to gain entry etc.

I hope you still have a copy of that email/letter.

EmJ86

Cardew wrote: »

OP,
I would add that if it was a leak, the issue is between you and the landlord and as the bill is in your name, you are responsible.

However most companies will give a once only 'goodwill' allowance; especially since they stated:


I hope you still have a copy of that email/letter.

The account is in my husbands name so any correspondence went to his email but I'm pretty sure he still has a copy of it.

We took care of all the problems we had in terms of bills/utilities etc but as we had no idea where the ingress was coming from (and we were due to be kicked out in a matter of weeks) we thought we better let the landlord know as they would've needed to get it sorted before the house was sold.

I'm not disputing if it's our responsibility or not, what I wanted to know is how I should proceed with Southern Water/Advantis? I've tried speaking to Southern Water via an online chat who told me to call their financial services team then ended the chat before I could ask how I go about doing so etc... He didn't acknowledge then anything about the dispute we had, just told me to speak to the finance team in regards to being sent to debt collectors... I know they'll say it's because we haven't paid and I'll end up going round in circles...!