Castle Water

ab2000

Hello all.  I'm after some advice please.

My my mother has a holiday let that was supplied by South West water up until about 4 years ago when they sold all business accounts to Castle Water.

To cut a very long story short, they started getting very big bills.  At one point Castle claimed they owed £40k, and this is a 3 bed property.  Various investigations were carried out, one by a rep from Castle who said if that's what the meter says it must be right! But it wasn't until they had a leak AFTER their stopcock that it was discovered that their supply was actually supplying 3 other properties, hence why the meter was going like crazy. Now the leak is fixed, supplies split, the bills are £40 per month.

They politely refused to pay the £40K, employed a solicitor who calculated that their offer of 5k was fair even though it was above the 2.5K she calculated for the period.  The solicitor has asked them specific questions regarding the bills, rates charged, period of charge, but no response. Castle countered at 17K.

My parents are both in their mid 70's and this is their retirement pot. To make this go away they agreed to pay, but under duress and with no admission to fault.  They have until this Monday.  They dont wish to pay 2.5K to get a QC to look to see if they have a case and risk potentially losing in court and incurring more costs.

If they do pay what can be done retrospectively.  Is there anyone they can contact for help.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

phsci

" Is there anyone they can contact for help?"
Try CCW | The voice for water consumers, here to help you. (ccwater.org.uk)

reefer37

Castle water have been very problematic since they took over alot of water company contracts. 
to many accounts and not enough staff to handle it.

first off if they have not been billing correctly South west water and then castle water (metering a joint supply pipe without your parents knowing they paid for the water for 3 properties)
its the same as if an electric meter was wrongly installed and company billing on one meter etc hence the higher consumption. where the other properties paying rates aswell.
your parents should be able to back claim 6 years worth of over payments from castle and south west water depending on when meter installed.
as said above if castle wont do anything then ccw are your point of call as they are their to fight consumer rights etc.

another bit of advise would be once this is all sorted i would advise changing supplier. commercial water the customer can change supplier and i would advise changing to move away from castle water. all that will change is who you pay the bill with and who you deal with. south west water will still supply the water but you will pay someone else other than castle.
same as gas and electric same product different company you pay the bill for.

ab2000

Both of you, thank you for the replies. They have paid the bill and are looking to take retrospective action. I have also advised they switch suppliers and deregulated the property as a business. 

They have been terrible from the start. I made a mistake in my original post, the first bill after switching from SW water was £103k!

The woman they sent round to investigate basically said it was my mums fault and she could afford it as she had a second home. 

Even before payment and multiple letters from the solicitor asking for a detailed they never responded.