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Charged for 3 houses by my incorrectly installed meter!

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Hello Forum-ers,

Here's the situation: in Spring of this year, a meter was installed at my holiday cottage in Scotland by Scottish Water. I'd been given a rough approximation of how much the bills should be for the full year for my water only service (no waste as we have a septic tank so is deal with separately) and was comfortable that that seemed reasonable. However once the bills started rolling in, the totals seemed far higher than I expected. I called my service provider several times to check but they said that initial bills can be higher and will then settle down...but they didn't. This billing became quickly rather painful as I was first pregnant and then on maternity leave, so this unexpectedly high cost was quite a squeeze on finances. I tried my best to work out what was going wrong and raised it again with the provider but they said that I must just have guests who were particularly indulgent with their water usage!

In October this year, I was able to travel to visit the cottage (I live out of the country for humanitarian work reasons) and ran some tests including turning off the supply into the house and checking the meter, noticing that it was still whizzing around even with the supply switched off. I was originally told that there must be a leak etc but that didn't stack up as there was no sign of a leak and Scottish Water weren't keen to come out quickly unless the water was gushing or I had a loss of pressure...apparently the flood out of my bank account wasn't significant enough!

Anyway, in the end it turns out that the meter has been wrongly installed by Scottish Water and so I've been paying for 3 cottages all this time instead of 1 all this time. My provider has been trying to contact Scottish Water for the last 6 weeks now but they haven't responded (not surprising - they are notoriously slow to respond to anything and in fact took about a year to get themselves sorted with actually installing the meter). I have been advised I am due a full refund and then a bill based on probable average usage over the period (so probably due back £3-400, not an insignficant sum for me, esp as I am still on maternity leave with no pay). My questions are:

1. How can I get Scottish Water to jump into action and respond to my supplier?
2. Am I due any compensation as well as a simple refund as this is clearly their error and has put me out of pocket for months now at a vulnerable time.

Thanks!

Comments

  • Firstly, I would cancel any further payments to Scottish Water. This will likely trigger contact from them almost instantly.

    When you speak to somebody on the phone, demand to speak to their manager. If they ask why, tell them because their usual advisors are slow and incompetent - which, from your account, is true.

    Not only would I want my payments reducing by a third, but I would make it crystal clear that they will be back dating your overpayments.

    Once that is sorted, compensation for stress and inconvenience should be arranged. As this has been going on for some time, I would expect this amount to be 3-figures.
  • I think the bill should be reduced by 2 thirds actually but maths may not be my strong point!!!!
  • Speaking from some experience regarding this.
    Assume that cottages were originally owned by one owner, farmer, and then sold.
    Water came in on one supply, then split into different areas.
    The meter would have been fitted to main supply, probably yours. Have you asked neighbours if they have meters installed ...if so ..what are their bills.
    You would have to get scottish water to check this, but if memory serves me well, it's up to owners to pay to have supply split.
  • If you've overpaid by £300-£400 I would expect a goodwill gesture of £50-£100 at most.
  • Thanks for your replies both of you! I should add, because this is in effect a commercial arrangement (because its a holiday cottage), I am only allowed to deal with my supplier, not Scottish Water directly - I don't know why but it just appears to be the way it works (not well though, of course) and so if I try to speak to Scottish Water, they just refuse to speak to me and tell me to report the issue again with my provider. I'm pretty sure its not the provider's fault as through my own direct experience in the past and indirectly from other suppliers I know their response rate is woeful.

    My provider has suspended payments from me but not sure which century Scottish water may notice.

    As for the other cottages, yes, the supply does come in through my house but Scottish water had apparently "already" installed a meter at one of my neighbours house and is "in the process" (has been for months) with the other so don't think it can be up to us to rectify this one.

    Any advice on what steps to take next would be much appreciated!
  • Mister_G
    Mister_G Posts: 1,946 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Posting this on the Water Bills board may elicit more replies. This board is for Energy (mains electricity and gas).

    Perhaps the Mods could move it for you.
  • Thanks for that suggestion, didn't know there was a Water Bills board. Perhaps I will post it up afresh there (no idea how to get the mods to move it - reporting it doesn't seem the right strategy) and see what answers that may yield. Many thanks
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