water charges....why so much ?

kronas

hi all, after some advice for a freind, the water charges currently seem to stand higher than a two floor block of flats, his house is a bungelow, he has been told its due to land size but does anyone know why this could be or has a clue as to why its excessive ?

Cardew

If the property has a meter then the charges will be the roughly the same regardless of a bedsit or a mansion - it is the water you use that counts.

However unmetered properties built before 1990 have their water charges based on the Rateable Value(RV) of the property.

This RV is a figure expressed in £s and is a notional value based on the rent a property could command. - It is NOT the same as Council Tax bands.

So if your friend's bungalow has, say, an RV of £400 and the flat an RV of £200, then your friend will pay roughly double that of the flat.

You friend should look at getting a meter installed - they don't cost anything.

kronas

it is not a metered property, however it is being considered..... so this RV it is based on the rent you can get for it ? it is privately owned so im confused about that, who is in charge of RV valuations ?

kronas

most appreciated for the response given cardew, il recommend the meter option as it has been suggested before by the water company, but they would not go in to why the rate is high!

ah google to the rescue!

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/aptrix/ofwat/publish.nsf/Content/info47

Cardew

kronas wrote: »

most appreciated for the response given cardew, il recommend the meter option as it has been suggested before by the water company, but they would not go in to why the rate is high!

ah google to the rescue!

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/aptrix/ofwat/publish.nsf/Content/info47

That Ofwat link is fine to explain RV.

What it doesn't do is explain the way RV was assessed. Whilst it was based on a notional rent, it often had no relationship to the value of the property.

This meant that a huge old unmodernised mansion in several acres - no CH etc - could have a lower RV than an estate semi. The reasoning for this was that nobody would want to rent the mansion.

EricaB

it seems our house has a higher rv value than my mums - strangely her house is worth about 3x as much as mine and is in council tax c where mine is in a.

my water rates are much higher than hers and i have looked at water meters but seems it won't make any difference as my o/h has to use the bath due to medical condition

Incisor

kronas wrote: »

hi all, after some advice for a freind, the water charges currently seem to stand higher than a two floor block of flats, his house is a bungelow, he has been told its due to land size but does anyone know why this could be or has a clue as to why its excessive ?

What the others say, but you need to provide more info on the breakdown of charges for any concrete help.