Shared supply question

Legocar

Apologies if this has been asked several times before... 
I recently discovered that the external stopcock at our house is connected to two other houses. 
We have a meter (next to said stopcock) as does one of the other houses. The 3rd house just pays water rates.

I can understand how South Staffs Water could deduct the billed usage of the metered house from the reading on our meter, but there doesn't appear to be any way to distinguish between the water we use and that of the non metered property.

My question is this, if we manage to establish that we have been paying for the non metered usage, how likely are we to get a refund for the last 5 years (since we moved into the property)?
And if yes, how would they calculate it? 

Green_hopeful

you could look at your previous bills and see how the charges have been applied. Do they charge you for the whole amount of the usage on your meter or is there some adjustment. 

Can you as for a separate meter for your supply. If they can’t do that then I guess they would have to charge you on an assessed measured basis. https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/media/4231/customer-charges-ssw-2023.pdf this is a link to their charges scheme. It’s the rules they follow when charging customers. Page 18 talks about assessed measured charges. 

You could compare what you have been paying with what you would pay on assessed measured. 

amanda1024

I managed to get a complete refund (from Thames Water) in a similar situation. They were eventually able to install a meter specific to my house, but said since they had no way of knowing what my usage was before that, and it was their error, they would just refund me. I’ve heard of other people where they instead made an estimate of what their usage would have been.