Huge first water bill
James131994
Posts: 53 Forumite
in Water bills
Hi all,
We moved into our rented house at the start of August. We have recently found out and been billed for £600 in addition to the £31 monthly direct debits we paid.
After much investigating the problem was discovered to be an internal valve in our hot water tank, it wasn't shutting off when full and constantly overflowing into the sewers (no physical leak visible). We have now had this fixed as soon as we were aware (the bill made us aware there was a problem!) and now Thames Water are 'seeing' if they can go any good will gestures to correct the account.
The engineer that fixed the problem said the issue was probably going on for a lot longer than us moving in BUT we didn't get an opening reading - sooo stupid I know but this was our first move and we didn't even think about it.
To make this even more frustrating, the landlords engineers were due to do an annual service on the property in November but failed to show up on 4 occasions and only came out a few weeks ago in the end. If they did this service when they should have done they would have noticed the problem and it could have been drastically improved.
My question is, if Thames Water do not any good will gestures, should my landlord pay or am I responsible given the circumstances?
We moved into our rented house at the start of August. We have recently found out and been billed for £600 in addition to the £31 monthly direct debits we paid.
After much investigating the problem was discovered to be an internal valve in our hot water tank, it wasn't shutting off when full and constantly overflowing into the sewers (no physical leak visible). We have now had this fixed as soon as we were aware (the bill made us aware there was a problem!) and now Thames Water are 'seeing' if they can go any good will gestures to correct the account.
The engineer that fixed the problem said the issue was probably going on for a lot longer than us moving in BUT we didn't get an opening reading - sooo stupid I know but this was our first move and we didn't even think about it.
To make this even more frustrating, the landlords engineers were due to do an annual service on the property in November but failed to show up on 4 occasions and only came out a few weeks ago in the end. If they did this service when they should have done they would have noticed the problem and it could have been drastically improved.
My question is, if Thames Water do not any good will gestures, should my landlord pay or am I responsible given the circumstances?
0
Comments
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Landlord pays!0
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Isn't escape of water covered on building insurance ? As long as they have not neglected maintenance or ignored requests it would seem like an insurable risk, possibly subrogated to Thames afterwards, but does not sound like something a tenant should be concerned with at all."It is not the critic who counts..." - Theodore Roosevelt0
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Thanks for your replies.
I did think it would be the landlord, only thing is it’s a housing accosiation so they always seem to fob it off to someone else when I try to raise a complain.
We are due to move out soon as have got a mortgage offer and reserved a property so I will have to just hope it can get sorted before then or I think i’ll be asked to pay when I close the account down to move.0
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