Two MoneySavers reclaim £1,000+: How to check and challenge incorrect water bills

MSE_Emily

Two MoneySavingExpert.com users have secured refunds and compensation worth thousands - and reduced their waste water bills - after arguing their bills should have been lower as their homes aren't connected to public sewers. Here's how others in England and Wales can maybe do the same...

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Two MoneySavers reclaim £1,000+: How to check and challenge incorrect water bills if you use a soakaway or septic tank

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mark_cycling00

minor point:
"septic tank or water treatment plant". 

Many homes with septic tanks that were close to streams/rivers have had to replace with with water treatment plants, but they also don't need to pay for waste water. 

Cardew

The subject of Surface Water Drainage(SWD) has been a mess since the privatisation of Water.

For many years the companies relied on the provisions of ‘The Water Act’ which stated that the default position would be that customers would be charged for SWD unless the customer claimed relief. This was despite the fact that for the last 40 years planning permission for new properties mandated soakaways wherever practical.

We still have the ludicrous situation where in a multi storey block of flats every individual flat is charged SWD, or some have claimed and been granted relief from SWD charges and others still haven’t claimed.

Until relatively recently water companies relied on the Water Act regulations and would only backdate relief from the SWD charge to the start of the financial year. I tried unsuccessfully to help an elderly lady get relief for SWD backdated as she had lived on an estate, where every house had a soakaway, for 20 years, and some houses had obtained relief many years previously. The water company refused to backdate relief and they were backed by Ofwat.

More recently the interpretation of regulations has changed and backdated relief has been granted where it was reasonable for the water company to have known that properties had soakaways. However in almost every case I have heard about relief was granted for a maximum of 6 years.

The situation is still a mess and many thousands, if not millions, of people are unfairly paying SWD.

It is pertinent to add that the water companies do not profit from this 'overcharging' or lose out from granting relief as their total revenue is fixed by Ofwat. If, say, they lost £1 million in SWD charges, other charges are raised to compensate.

Luckyal_3

I got a reduction in my water bill when I drew attention to the use of a soakaway but as I live in a block of 12 flats I received only a pro-rata amount. It was easy to do although I had to look hard at my bill to spot the relevant clause. It only £20 a year but better in my pocket...

Ange1ah

I looked at this when I moved house in 2020 into a 2005 build with a soak away and the down pipes all go straight into the ground but the form from Severn Trent was asking for a plan showing the location of the soak away and also the size which isn’t information I have. I did contact the housing developers who said that they don’t have the plans and that the first buyers would have been shown where it was. There is nothing on the planning permission either, it just had a couple of street maps which don’t represent what they actually built anyway! 
Any idea how to proceed? Thanks 

Cardew

Ange1ah said:

I looked at this when I moved house in 2020 into a 2005 build with a soak away and the down pipes all go straight into the ground but the form from Severn Trent was asking for a plan showing the location of the soak away and also the size which isn’t information I have. I did contact the housing developers who said that they don’t have the plans and that the first buyers would have been shown where it was. There is nothing on the planning permission either, it just had a couple of street maps which don’t represent what they actually built anyway! 
Any idea how to proceed? Thanks 

Welcome to the forum.

I know your house well!! The soakaway is exactly 1.65 metres from the downpipe at the rear of your house.!

Seriously this is a standard(stupid) practice from Severn Trent. For a 2005 house they probably won't bother with an inspection. So just sketch a plan of where it is most likely to be(under a lawn?) and approx 1 metre square. (an old neighbour told you the information)

All they will do in the unlikely event of an inspection is squirt some coloured dye into gutters, run a hose, and check none enter the sewers.

Foilpedro

Surely this is consumer scandal? The banks and others have had to pay compensation for knowingly overcharging on accounts for years and years so why not the water companies?

My water company is Thames Water and we moved into our house on a private road with 47 houses over 20 years ago.  To the best of my knowledge Thames have charged for surface water drainage for all that time (and before) even though they had the original street building plans in their possession showing that the drainage was to soak-aways for the entire street.

I requested a rebate recently and got 6 years surface water rebate approved within 2 days, presumably because it was so easy for Thames to check their own records. But why only 6 years rebate?  Thames have clearly been charging without justification since the houses were built.

Householders cannot easily check where their water goes - it goes down a hole into a pipe and disappears and without digging up the road how do they know whether it goes into a soak-away or the sewage system? Thames Water had the plans and knew the charge should not have been levied. As the "experts", if my ancient knowledge of contract law is correct, they were at fault in law and I think they should make full restitution.

Cardew

Foilpedro said:

Surely this is consumer scandal? The banks and others have had to pay compensation for knowingly overcharging on accounts for years and years so why not the water companies?

My water company is Thames Water and we moved into our house on a private road with 47 houses over 20 years ago.  To the best of my knowledge Thames have charged for surface water drainage for all that time (and before) even though they had the original street building plans in their possession showing that the drainage was to soak-aways for the entire street.

I requested a rebate recently and got 6 years surface water rebate approved within 2 days, presumably because it was so easy for Thames to check their own records. But why only 6 years rebate?  Thames have clearly been charging without justification since the houses were built.

Householders cannot easily check where their water goes - it goes down a hole into a pipe and disappears and without digging up the road how do they know whether it goes into a soak-away or the sewage system? Thames Water had the plans and knew the charge should not have been levied. As the "experts", if my ancient knowledge of contract law is correct, they were at fault in law and I think they should make full restitution.

Welcome to the forum.

Please do not think I am defending the water companies but like any company given a licence to print money when water was privatised over 30 years ago they have put the interests of their shareholders first. That frankly was the philosophy of Maggie's government and successive governments, of both colours, have done little to address the issue.

The problem was the original government Water Act  which mandated charging for surface water drainage(SWD) for all properties in England and Wales and placed the responsibility on occupants to claim relief from that charge.

To be fair, at the time of water privatisation there were perhaps 15 million properties and it would have been an almost impossible task to inspect and determine which properties had SWD and which used soakaways or their surface water drained into ditches/streams/ponds etc or of course into the sewer system.

So it is incorrect to say that in your case Thames Water have been charging your street 'without justification' for over 20 years. In fact they have no mandate under the Water Act to automatically grant exemption from the SWD charge.

So you have not been 'overcharged' but simply failed to claim relief from charges. I you look at the small print of your bills, which few of us do, you will see that you can claim relief. Whist banks have indeed refunded where they have overcharged customers; they fail to pay any compensation for many millions of customers who leave money for years in accounts paying 0.01% interest.

It is also important to stress the point I made in my earlier post:

 'It is pertinent to add that the water companies do not profit from this 'overcharging' or lose out from granting relief as their total revenue is fixed by Ofwat. If, say, they lost £1 million in SWD charges, other charges are raised to compensate.' 

 The six year period is simply down to the Statute of Limitations. The valid argument against backdating rebates put forward by Ofwat applies in your case. If your 47 Houses(and millions of others across the country) were to receive backdated charges' to  1989 in some cases, that would have to be paid for in increased water charges for all custiomers. That would mean that some customers not even born in 1989 would be paying for those rebates.

The simplistic answer would be to amend the Water Act and abolish SWD charges