On the wrong meter for 4 years - what now?

icklesurfer

Hi. I live in a block of flats where our water meters are stored outside and all together. There are only two of us in our flat and we both work full time so not there during the day.

My bill had been slowly increasing from £31.20 per month to £72.50. Our usage hadn't changed from what I observed so I called my water company to come out and check why my bill kept creeping up.

Long story short, they came this morning and have realised that I'm being billed for the wrong meter... and the meter that I am being billed for is constantly spinning.

Assuming I'm due a refund after calculating my usage on the correct meter... can I demand a cheque refund or will they insist on adding it as account credit?

Hasbeen

icklesurfer wrote: »

Hi. I live in a block of flats where our water meters are stored outside and all together. There are only two of us in our flat and we both work full time so not there during the day.

My bill had been slowly increasing from £31.20 per month to £72.50. Our usage hadn't changed from what I observed so I called my water company to come out and check why my bill kept creeping up.

Long story short, they came this morning and have realised that I'm being billed for the wrong meter... and the meter that I am being billed for is constantly spinning.

Assuming I'm due a refund after calculating my usage on the correct meter... can I demand a cheque refund or will they insist on adding it as account credit?

What have they said?

Benight

icklesurfer wrote: »

Hi. I live in a block of flats where our water meters are stored outside and all together. There are only two of us in our flat and we both work full time so not there during the day.

My bill had been slowly increasing from £31.20 per month to £72.50. Our usage hadn't changed from what I observed so I called my water company to come out and check why my bill kept creeping up.

Long story short, they came this morning and have realised that I'm being billed for the wrong meter... and the meter that I am being billed for is constantly spinning.

Assuming I'm due a refund after calculating my usage on the correct meter... can I demand a cheque refund or will they insist on adding it as account credit?

If you are due a refund, you can ask for this to be paid back to you.

Our water supplier certainly can do that via cheque (to the water account holder), but as yours holds your bank account details as you pay via DD, they may prefer to simply re-credit your bank account directly.

Have a chat with them, if/when the situation aises

icklesurfer

Hasbeen wrote: »

What have they said?

Funnily enough they were quick off the mark to chase when when I was struggling to meet the cost but now teams of people need to review it before making a comment.

They attempted to tangle me up in uncovering who's meter they have been billing for, but I've told them that that's their problem.

To my mind it's a simple process, deduct what I've racked up on my real meter over 4 years from what I've been paying on someone else's over 4 years. I either owe more or I'm due a refund. No brainer, but they've told me they'll "contact me in due course"

Talldave

Monitor the next month's consumption and get them to use that to recalculate the earlier bills. Better than guesswork. If the refund is substantial, ask for some interest?

As you point out, it's not your job to find out who's consumption you have been paying for. Worse still, when that person is asked to pay for their real consumption they may be slightly unhappy.

However, it would be interesting to know if the error is limited to a single one for one mix up or whether the entire block are playing a water meter lottery!

Norman_Castle

icklesurfer wrote: »

They attempted to tangle me up in uncovering who's meter they have been billing for, but I've told them that that's their problem.

To my mind it's a simple process, deduct what I've racked up on my real meter over 4 years from what I've been paying on someone else's over 4 years. I either owe more or I'm due a refund. No brainer, but they've told me they'll "contact me in due course"

Unlikely they're trying to "tangle you up". It is their problem but until they know which meter feeds which flat they cannot charge you according to what you have used.

icklesurfer

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Unlikely they're trying to "tangle you up". It is their problem but until they know which meter feeds which flat they cannot charge you according to what you have used.

They found my correct meter. It took about two hours but they know exactly which one is mine and so they’ll know my proper consumption. But they’re still ‘investigating’ so they urge me know to cancel my direct debit, so they still want me to pay for water use that wasn’t mine.