Found out we are being overcharged for water and they will not help us

Joed1977 · 20 February 2019 at 11:38AM

Hi - we recently questioned our water bill as it has shot up again this year and will be £63 per month from £55. I asked our neighbour who is in a carbon copy of our house and they are only paying £42 per month! We were shocked to hear this as our RV should be the same and we certainly shouldnt be paying £12 more than them per month. Phoned our water company who said they can see the difference on the system but would not help us. All they suggest is getting a water meter. We explained that this must have been happening for at least ten years and now i dread to think how much we have been overcharged if you add it all up. I telephoned OFWAT who again could not help as the department responsible for calculating the Rateable Value no longer exists. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do next? I think a meter is on the cards but we still want the money back that they have overcharged us. Thanks

Robin9 · 20 February 2019 at 11:41AM

If both you and you neighbour have water charges based on RV are your RV's different.

If so you can appeal to your Council but beware if you win your neighbour might loose !

Cardew · 20 February 2019 at 12:01PM

This subject has come up many times on MSE and indeed there is no way of changing the Rateable value(RV)

As background, the last general RV assessment for England and Wales was in 1973; and houses built between 1973 and April 1990 were seperately assessed. RV as a form of 'local taxation' then ceased and became the Poll Tax and then the present Council Tax. The RV was assessed by the Council.

It is important to appreciate that the RV was not based on the value of the property but the notional rental value it would achieve. This took into account many factors other than size and location. I suspect in your case it was how 'modernised' your property was at the date of assessment compared to your neighbour's property. Yours might have had central heating? new bathroom? new kitchen? Garage? - anything that would command a higher rent.

In theory any improvements to your neighbour's property could have led to a higher RV but councils rarely(never) bothered - even for large extensions.

So the bottom line is you haven't been overcharged and there is no mechanism to alter the RV and the Water Companies have no idea if the RV was correct or not.

Joed1977 · 20 February 2019 at 12:36PM

So I have absolutely not way of trying to either adjust future payments or find out if they have been overcharging me for the last decade. when we bough the house everything was original from when it was built in the 70s! so if anything theirs should be more expensive!

Cardew · 20 February 2019 at 3:14PM

The water company are not overcharging; they can only go on the RV given them by the council; and that could be well over 50 years ago.

The RV system was a complete mess, I can give you examples of mansions in several acres and NOW worth £millions with a lower RV than a 2 bed estate semi.

bertiewhite · 20 February 2019 at 4:12PM

Is there any reason why you're resisting a meter? I thought I was on to a good thing for years by being able to use as much water as I wanted but then bought a property which already had a meter and my monthly payments went from £50 to £19.

cajef · 20 February 2019 at 5:15PM

Joed1977 wrote: »

So I have absolutely not way of trying to either adjust future payments

Get a water meter fitted then your payments will be adjusted so you only pay for what you use.

Found out we are being overcharged for water and they will not help us

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