Old Water Bill,help plz

KittyCat1

Hi
We bought our first property in 1989 from my dad.(it was one big detached house that my dad bought,he converted it back to two semis,we bought one,he sold on the other.)
We informed the waterboard of the changeover but never received a bill from them.We were there for just over 5 yrs.
It was only when we decided to sell up that we received our first bill from them which was backdated for the 5 yrs that we were there.
As you can imagine,it was a rather hefty bill,we're still paying it off slowly now.
After reading some of the posts on here regarding old water bills we just wanted to know where we stood as some say as we informed the water board they can only backdate a years worth of charges,others say 6 yrs.
Being older and wiser,we want to know if theres anything we can do as at the time we just held our hands up and started small repayments to them even though we felt we'd informed them but never received a single bill from them.We also didn't query the amount,just panicked i guess and got a repayment plan together to pay them.
Someone also mentioned asking for a SAR??Is the debt too old to ask for this as its dating back to 1989?
We'd be grateful for any help - thanks in advance.

KittyCat1

Been in touch with the water board and they say they have no records in their archives for this property as they only keep records for the last 6 years.If there is no record of this and what with the timescale elapsed,surely this is unenforceable and cannot be claimed for??
Does anyone know if this is right?And is there any Act i'd be able to quote to them stating this?Surely,by law,if they are asking for a certain amount of money,they have to give some sort of breakdown of where they got the figure from?If they have no records dating that far back,how can they ask for the money?

Cardew

Well firstly like most bills they can go back 6 years.

People may be getting confused with the curent code of practice for gas and electricty bills - NOT water - where the companies have agreed that they will only backcharge for 12 months. Before July 2007 it was 2 years, and at the time your debt occured it was the same as any debt under Civil law - 6 years.

As I understand it you agreed a debt with a company in 1994 for unpaid bills back to 1989 and started a repayment plan???

Again as I understand it you are now challenging that debt??

Clearly they would have had to give a breakdown of that debt in 1994 and you should have challenged it at that time.

It seems to me you are a little confused about the intrepretation of 6 year debt law. It was applied correctly in 1994 and you did not challenge the outstanding amount.

Once a debt has been established and a payment plan agreed - paying back over 14+ years?? - then IMO you cannot now challenge that debt other that in a court of law, and the onus would be on you to prove it was an incorrect bill.

Incidentally, I assume you have not been paying interest on the outstading debt - for 14 years?

Frankly I think any organisation would find it amusing if I wrote to them and said I think you overcharged me in 1994(yes I know I didn't dispute it at the time) and I want you to now prove that it was a correct charge.

Sorry to appear unsympathetic, but IMO I can't see you have any sort of case at all; and in fact not many companies would allow you to pay off a bill over 14+ years.

KittyCat1

Thanks for the reply.
The full amount from 1989 is still with the water board and always has been,not a debt company.
They never gave us a breakdown of the water bill owed at the time.We were both pretty young and basically just accepted what they said.
Its not that we are disputing it,if we owe it we will continue to pay - just wanted a breakdown of where the amount came from they said we owed as it was and still is very high.We just feel that legally we should be entitled to this.