Unable to install a meter and yet being moved to meter assessed tariff

Cardew

deannatrois wrote: »

OK. I have had the exact same letter. Only I was up until January living half a mile down the road, with a meter that was installed 18 months ago. Initially I was paying £36 a month, but am very sparing with the water I use, and had got it down to £22 a month (apparently same as their estimated useage for a 1 bed property which says it all as to how good their guesses are).

Now I am going to be charged £475 a year (apparently my old unmetered charge was £403.84 so basically they are putting it up by £75 a year even comparing rateable to their assessed metered useage).

.

There are quite a few people like yourself who report on MSE that they have very very low metered consumption. Depending on paying for SWD or not, £22 a month(£264 pa)would equate to an annual consumption of 51 cubic metres. That is less than the average for a single person.


Obviously people like yourself are going to be disadvantaged.


However it is beyond dispute that the average consumption per person in UK is around 55 cubic metres per year; there are many sources such as this:


http://www.cambridge-water.co.uk/customers/how-much-water-do-you-use


The assessed charge for a 3 bed house in Southern Water is £475. As posted above, 3 people in that 3 bed house with average consumption would pay £662, and 4 people £855. So it is fair to say the majority of occupants in a 3 bed house would be considerably better off on an assessed charge.

[Deleted User]

Ok phoned them up today. Explained the situation, as I suspected, they have confused my place with the three bed maisonettes upstairs (the ground floor ones are two bed).

Its a shared water supply but the water company can investigate putting an internal meter in even then. Initially said they couldn't install internal water meter because it would be more than 1.5m off the ground. I said, honestly I live in a ground floor maisonette, know exactly where the stop c0ck is and its not even 30cm off the ground. Again, confused it with top floor maisonette three floors up.

So going to be inspected again. And get lower bills meanwhile as living in a 2 bed rather than 3 bed.

However, never did answer my question as to whether I HAVE to go to this assessed meter billing. Ofwat seems to indicate its a voluntary charge if you ask for a water meter and one can't be installed, no mention of Water Companies being able to force them on you. However, I found an old report that said that as the South East has been determined as under stress water wise, the government gave water companies supplying the South East the ability to compulsorily install water meters. So unfortunately, the assessed charges can't be avoided.

Cardew

deannatrois wrote: »

So unfortunately, the assessed charges can't be avoided.

Bear in mind that I suspect the majority of people would be prefer to be on an assessed tariff than a meter.

matelodave

The problem with an assessed charge is that people can be as profligate as they were when on RV charges.

Everyone should be on a meter so they pay for what they use and would be a bit more careful about wasting it.

Some really do think that it falls out of the sky and appears at their taps for nothing

tealady

With you there Matelotdave. I live on my own and before I had a meter I begrudged paying the same as neighbours who had more people living there.
Personally I feel that whereever possible properties should be on a meter, there are ways of saving water that are not difficult (use a water butt to collect water for the garden for instance). Not being a gardener I rely on Mother Nature to water the grass and wish she didn't do it as often!

undaunted

Request an explanation as to why they can't fit a meter. If it sounds wrong query that.


Totally different area but YW once repeatedly said they couldn't fit a meter to a property. Customer insisted that the contractors they had sent round were simply being incompetent / had not properly investigated & the information they were giving YW did not follow logic (ie they were claiming it must be a shared supply, simply because they hadn't found the pipes with their cat scanner, there was no internal stop tap - untrue. Customer repeatedly told them that as not only was there an internal tap but each property was independently able to turn off their water supply without affecting the adjoining properties, therefore this shared supply idea could not possibly be true). Ultimately, after complaint to the Ombudsman, when a competent and less idle engineer turned up for a final look, actually bothered to go next door & look under the manhole cover - to find 3 separate plastic pipes, undetectable with a cat scanner - for 3 seperate - used a metal rod with a wooden knob to find the sound of the pipe, etc a water meter was fitted within days & proved far cheaper than rateable value or even the assessed charge.