Cheaper Water Bills Article Discussion

coopsxx

I have been paying £45 a month for my water bills (Yorkshire Water), having just had a water metre fitted, we are now paying £25 a month. Therefore clearly i have been over charged for sometime... am I entitled to get this money back?

Thank you

Gothicfairy

coopsxx wrote: »

I have been paying £45 a month for my water bills (Yorkshire Water), having just had a water metre fitted, we are now paying £25 a month. Therefore clearly i have been over charged for sometime... am I entitled to get this money back?

Thank you

No, you are not entitled to anything back, you have not been over charged at all.

It is just a different rate of charge. You can't ask your electric / gas supplier for the money back if you change tariffs can you ? this is the same kind of thing.
You where charged correctly on RV until you applied for a meter.

Also as a side line, as the meter is new your payment plan might not actually be your usage anyway..So I would wait and see what your first bill is like before thinking of any saving you may or may not have made..also RV bills are normally on a 8 month payment plan whereas water meters are 11 so you really can't compare payment plans. You need to compare bills.

coopsxx

Thanks,

But surely it is a bit different, in the sense that unlike the Energy tariff example, i had no choice but to go with the RV 'tariff' because they take 2 months to put the meter in. Are they really different rates of charge? it seems like RV is merely a predicted charge, where as the meter is an accurate charge based on usage?

In terms of cost. Both the £45 RV and £25 MB are over 11 months and are both bills.

Gothicfairy

Both charges are correct but based on different things.
The RV is based on the amount of rent you could have got for your property about 30 years ago. It is a valid rate of charge and was brought about by the governement so that local councils could charge based on property worth.
It is outdated now but perfectly legal and until all properties are metered it will remain as the default charge until a meter is applied for.

Not sure about " Both the £45 RV and £25 MB are over 11 months and are both bills." as I really don't understand what you are saying.
£25 per month as a payment plan is not your bill, it is your payment plan and your bill could be higher or lower depending on your usage.
As for the RV bill it should be over 8 installements and not 11 unless there has been a reason to extend it ?

You might be able to get the water company to backdate your bill to the date you applied for a meter but that would be a good will thing so it would be best to write them a nice letter and explain that you would like your account looking into to.

nouvellepauvre

Is there any way of discovering how much water one is using without getting a water meter? I wasn't aware of how much I was being overcharged until Thames Water contacted me about having a meter installed. Do they know something that I don't? I appreciate that I am charged for the size and "rateable value" of the property and not for the usage. They enclosed a table of the typical metered charges for 2011/12. The highest tariff was £567 for six people with a high usage. I am being charged £728. I queried this with Thames Water and they said that this didn't include sewerage. My three daughters are mostly away at university but even if they were living at home, average consumption for four people is quoted at £370. The simple answer would be to get a water meter but as a house move is on the cards, I doubt that I would see the benefit. Do Thames Water know what my usage is and if they do can I get a refund?

nouvellepauvre

Have found the above posts very useful and informative. Didn't realise that water rates were spread over eight months - have much to learn. In that case I am paying £510 pa including sewerage. Still very high. Until water meters are mandatory, those of us who try not to waste water will be penalised. No hope of a refund either!

Gothicfairy

nouvellepauvre wrote: »

Have found the above posts very useful and informative. Didn't realise that water rates were spread over eight months - have much to learn. In that case I am paying £510 pa including sewerage. Still very high. Until water meters are mandatory, those of us who try not to waste water will be penalised. No hope of a refund either!

Thing is, you are not being penalised really. You can have a meter fitted, you are choosing not to.
There is no way to find out how much you are using without a meter but you can work it out using one of the many online calculators or go to Thames web site as I am sure there is one there.
Thames will also be able to tell you over the phone or by letter etc how much they would expect you to use but on average it is about 60 cubic meters per person per year.
You are right about a refund though because one is not due. Your rate of charge is correct and no matter how high it is there is nothing anyone can do about it other then get a meter (or if a meter can not be installed you can be put onto assessed charges)

nouvellepauvre

Why do we have to pay our water bills over eight months rather than twelve?

nouvellepauvre

Many thanks Gothicfairy. I guess my charges work out at approx £10.50 pw over the year, so I should quit complaining. Actually seems pretty reasonable.

Gothicfairy

nouvellepauvre wrote: »

Why do we have to pay our water bills over eight months rather than twelve?

One thought about that was that it runs from April 1st to April 1st and is payable in advance.
You can pay it in 2 parts ie 01.04 xx and 01.10 xx but for a payment plan to finish in enough time to clear the account ready for the next year it was set at 8 months.
It also means that it can be changed if required..So if your bill is not that high (like mine was) it gets paid in 8 installements no problems and you get some free months but if it that bill is high and you need help paying it it can then be pushed to 10 maybe even 11 months.

I was also told that as the council tax use to run for 8 months it was applied to that and never got changed..Not sure how true that is though as my council tax payment plan normally seems to be for 10 months and I can't remember it being over 8 but maybe I am not old enough as I don't remember paying my water through my council tax ever..Although I did through my rent to my local council way back when I had a council place.

I tend to think though that it is how it has always been done so it just carried on and now the computer billing system just reverts back to 8 as standard.