Severn Trent backdating when meter readings start.

Rich3427

I am a ST customer.

In Oct 2024 ST fitted a water meter in the pavement outside my property but I remained on water rates.

For the year Apr 25 to Mar 26 I paid £640 water rates.

In Dec 25 ST emailed me to tell me I would be changed to metered water as the Environment Agency have declared ST as an area of concern for water.

The email indicated their belief that metering would save me money.

I had several WhatsApp chats with them and they again said it would save me money.

Yesterday I received a bill from ST for over £1300 for the period Mar 25 to Oct 25.

They have credited me the £640 I paid and the nett amount owed is over £700.

They have backdated to Mar 25 the start date from which I would be subjected to metered billing.

I do use a hosepipe and irrigation system and accept that once on metered billing, my bill would rise.

However I have been given no notice of the change, therefore depriving me of the chance to reassess my usage and change it accordingly.

In addition none of my neighbours have had such a notification. ST inform me the change to metered billing is done in batches. Call my a cynic but with ST being able to collect water meter readings from existing meters, albeit not in use for billing purposes, and compare those readings with a property’s rateable bills, they are always going to select in the first batch the property’s they can retrieve extra money from!

If a household pays £640 in water rates, but from not in use meter readings, the usage would cost £400, then it’s unlikely they would be a priority for ST to switch to metered usage!

At this stage ST have told me to ignore the bill whilst they investigate.

Essentially my question is, having charged me water rates for the year 2025/26, can ST effectively rip up that bill, refund it and then charge me based on meter readings from Mar 2025 onwards that they hadn’t warned me they would be using? 

This wasn’t highlighted in the Dec 25 email, not any of the WhatsApp correspondence.

Additionally, I fail to understand, although ST had access to the meter readings, which they would have known would show my usage was more expensive than my water rates, they continued to say metered readings would save me money.

Water has been the last utility to be changed to metered usage, I can accept that it is fair that this happens, but what is unethical is backdating it with no warning to the customer.

I left it with ST that an acceptable resolution from my perspective, would be for them to decide on a date in the future for metered usage to start, I would read the meter on that day and submit it to them. Any moneys due to be credited from the water rates I have paid would be credited to my account.

I am in the process of doing a water meter leak test at their request but they have again emailed me to say they are allowed to go back in time to start metered water readings. They are still advising me I could save money!

Any comments welcomed?