Cheaper Water Bills Article Discussion

Gothicfairy

mullsy wrote: »

Hi all
I have just received my water bills from United Utility
Has anyone else noticed that You have to pay a standing charge (£16) for wastewater? A standing charge for what to have a sewer in the road which was installed by the home builder because if its on you land then you are responsible or so the utility company keeps saying when trying to sell me cover.
To add insult to injury I am now also expected to pay for surface water/ highway drainage as well another whopping £66 for water running off the road into a sewer that I helped pay for in the first instance and also I am charged for the fact that it is there Talk about RIP OFF BRITAIN.
Surely this is wrong that I a expected to pay for water landing on the highway.
Highway is right the utility company just missed the last word robbery.
What do others think is this the same all over the country or just in the rainy damp north west
Paul

This has been done to death as a quick forum search would show so I am not going to get into the rip off side of it ..But yes you have to pay for SWD and always did, it was just that through the RV you didn't notice as the bill was split slightly differently.
Who else should pay for it though ? If it were the government then we would all end up paying in the end anyway and the water company would just increase the bills if they had to pay for it all.

Fact of life is that everyone pays the charges and that keeps them lower then if only so pay it.
If you have a soakaway though you don't pay the SWD charge as nothing is returned from your property into the system.

Cardew

mullsy wrote: »

Hi all
I have just received my water bills from United Utility
Has anyone else noticed that You have to pay a standing charge (£16) for wastewater? A standing charge for what to have a sewer in the road which was installed by the home builder because if its on you land then you are responsible or so the utility company keeps saying when trying to sell me cover.
To add insult to injury I am now also expected to pay for surface water/ highway drainage as well another whopping £66 for water running off the road into a sewer that I helped pay for in the first instance and also I am charged for the fact that it is there Talk about RIP OFF BRITAIN.
Surely this is wrong that I a expected to pay for water landing on the highway.
Highway is right the utility company just missed the last word robbery.
What do others think is this the same all over the country or just in the rainy damp north west
Paul

The standing charge for 'waste water' is for sewerage from your house. We all pay that if metered; plus of course xx pence for waste water based on the water supplied per cubic metre.

If water from your land/gutters etc enters the sewerage system(instead going into soakaways) you pay for surface water drainage(SWD)

You do NOT pay for water landing on the highway, unless it has run off your land. If no water from your land enters the sewer you can claim exemption from that £66 SWD charge.

The part you won't like is that the water companies have no option on this matter. These charges were mandated by the Government in the Water Privatisation Act.

The other thing you might not appreciate it doesn't matter to the Water Company if you are charged £66, zero or £6,600.00 for SWD. Their revenue and hence profit is controlled by the Regulator(ofwat) and they raise that revenue regardless of how much you and a thousand others pay. If you are all charged nothing, then all of the other customers pay a little more.

Indiewitch

Hi All,We had an engineer out from Northumbrian Water today and he checked the meter which, he said is working correctly. However when he did a few tests by asking me to turn taps on one at a time while he looked at the meter he found hat when our bathroom sink tap was turned on the meter flew round. He even commented that he had never seen a meter move that fast for just one tap being turned on. All other taps in the property were tested and although they were moving the meter faster than they should, none was anywhere near as fast as the bathroom tap. The plot thickens, as these taps were put in to replace leaky taps in 2009 (when our bills started to increase)

He suggested we contact our Landlord (a housing association) as the fault lies with them rather than the Water company.

Can anyone advise me if this is the case before I contact them in the morning.

Thank you

Gothicfairy

If the internals are at fault then it is nothing to do with the water company.

What kind of pressure are you getting out of the tap or is there signs of another leak when the taps are opened ?

Indiewitch

He didn't say what pressures were just that it was high so I will rig the Water company tomorrow for the full report. He said there are no signs of a leak.

Gothicfairy

What does it feel like when you turn on the tap ? Does it seem high or does it just seem like all the rest ?

Oh and I doubt the report will be in tomorrow, it normally takes a couple of days for it to be available on the system and thus print off able

Indiewitch

It does feel very fast and you can hear it from outside of the property. I have spoken to my Landlord and am waiting for a contractor to ring me to arrange to come and check everything over. At the minute I've stopped the kids using the upstairs sink and loo and hardly dare turn any taps on. Northumbrian Water have said since the new taps were put in our yearly usage has gone up from 135 cubic metres to 268 cubic metres! I am not optimistic that the Landlord will admit any responsibility as they are pretty useless unless we are a day late paying our rent then they are straight on to us. Thanks for all your help so far Gothicfairy

Gothicfairy

Sounds like something is causing a big problem , you shouldn't be able to hear anything outside.
One thing to do is ask for a leaking allowance / adjustment form from the water company. You might not qualify at all but some water companies do allow a one off payment for internal leaks ..It has to be worth applying for as you never know ?

It might also be worth a call to Shelter as they have all the details of what a landlord has to do etc and can put you in touch with the community legal advice team who can offer free advice and even get involved ( if you qualify based on earning etc)

Wish you the best of luck though and hope it gets sorted asap

mullsy

HI
I would like to thank all who have contributed but alas I think that maybe I didn't make my point as clear as I should. why i am expected to pay for Highway drainage.Who owns the water that falls on the road do I ????. If the highway drain is blocked it is not my local water provider who comes and unblocks the drain but my local authority.The water company is a privately owned organisation. The point that Gothicfairy makes is a valid point as we have to pay somewhere but are we paying twice for the same thing

Gothicfairy

mullsy wrote: »

HI
I would like to thank all who have contributed but alas I think that maybe I didn't make my point as clear as I should. why i am expected to pay for Highway drainage.Who owns the water that falls on the road do I ????. If the highway drain is blocked it is not my local water provider who comes and unblocks the drain but my local authority.The water company is a privately owned organisation. The point that Gothicfairy makes is a valid point as we have to pay somewhere but are we paying twice for the same thing

OK I have re read your first post because I missed something,
You talk about waste water standing charge, that is for the meter and nothing else.
There use to be one standing charge for a meter with included clean and waste and was there to pay to cover the cost of metering and maintenance etc
The problem with that was that some people were billed twice by two different companies and thus got two full standing charges so it was agreed by OFWAT and all the water companies to split the standing charge into waste and clean ( the amount still comes to the same as when it was one charge) and that means that customers only pay for the service they get.

As for Surface water drainage..I agree that a lot of people think it an unfair charge ( my own view is that if it was removed it would only be added somewhere else and at least this way of charging is clear on size etc)
The water does fall around your property and you are responsible for any chemicals left on your land or solvents etc and the water company have to clean that water of your chemicals so that costs money.