Cheaper Water Bills Article Discussion
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testertrev wrote: »Heard from SWW yesterday that they agree my property is not connected to a surface drain and that they will refund overpaid charges back to April 2007 and amend future bills. My question is that, considering we moved in in 1998, we have obviously been overcharged for the entire period. Is there any merit in trying to claim this from SWW or is there some 'small print' that prevents this?
Loads and loads of posts about this(search for 'surface water drainage')
The Regulator has backed the Water Companies in their stance that they will only backdate this charge to the begining of the charging year. Although the charge is plain stupid, there are very sound reasons for not backdating.
One person has apparently managed to get it backdated(from Thames water) but that is the only case I have heard about.0 -
Hi there
After some help .
I received my water bill last week and nearly fell off my chair. My bill for 2008 is 399.48gbp. Now if i lived in a 5 bedroom house i would expect a bill for around this. But I live in a 2 bedroom maisonette apartment with no garden . There is only myself and my partner and we both work full time. Now i contacted yorkshire water last year as my bill was 360.00 last year and i was told my rate was due to the value of my house which was around 150,000gbp but then they said they use the council tax banding. Well my house falls under the bracket b which is 40,000gbp to about 55,000gbp. Now as I'm in a old building which was converted 10 years ago I have been advised I cant have a water meter.
I'm paying way to much I feel what can I do. It would be cheaper
to cut the water off and buy cheap bottled water !!!
Can anyone advise me what to do. Appreciate your thoughts.0 -
Hi there
After some help .
I received my water bill last week and nearly fell off my chair. My bill for 2008 is 399.48gbp. Now if i lived in a 5 bedroom house i would expect a bill for around this. But I live in a 2 bedroom maisonette apartment with no garden . There is only myself and my partner and we both work full time. Now i contacted yorkshire water last year as my bill was 360.00 last year and i was told my rate was due to the value of my house which was around 150,000gbp but then they said they use the council tax banding. Well my house falls under the bracket b which is 40,000gbp to about 55,000gbp. Now as I'm in a old building which was converted 10 years ago I have been advised I cant have a water meter.
I'm paying way to much I feel what can I do. It would be cheaper
to cut the water off and buy cheap bottled water !!!
Can anyone advise me what to do. Appreciate your thoughts.
Your property is assessed for water charges on its Rateable Value(RV)not Council Tax. RV was the system for assessing 'local taxes' prior to 1990(it was followed by the poll tax and then Council Tax)
Unfortunately the RV does not follow the Council Tax banding.
If they can't fit a meter you can insist on having an assessed charge which is the average charge for the number of people in the property, or in some cases the number of bedrooms.0 -
After other successes such as bank charges isn't this something that Martin could start to push. Get the newspapers, tv stations and radio stations aware of this injustice.
Surely nationwide there will be many cases of larger more valuable houses using a lot more water than smaller houses but paying similar or less amounts.
This is not only a rip off for all water customers but also cannot help enviromentally. We continually hear from the water companies during the summer telling us how water needs to be saved. (Although we all know they waste more but thats another story!)
The water companies need to pull their fingers out and update their billing methods.
It should be simple. The more water you use the more you pay. I know meters can solve this but shouldn't all the Water Companies push meters more and also look at what they charge non-metered properties.
To use the old rateable values is just stupid and lazy. Changing it to the current council tax band system at least would help.
I personally rent a small flat and am not metered due to the landlords wish not to have the property metered. BUT I pay a similar amount to 3 bed properties nearby. With 2-4 people occupying. Surely they use more water than 1 person!!
Martin can you start the ball rolling with the press!!?0 -
I personally rent a small flat and am not metered due to the landlords wish not to have the property metered. BUT I pay a similar amount to 3 bed properties nearby. With 2-4 people occupying. Surely they use more water than 1 person!!
Current legislation allows the water company to enforce metering when there is a change of occupant(tenant or owner, so the landlord's wishes should be irrelevant.
The trouble is that some Companies enforce this regulation rigidly and others don't bother.
I agree totally that to base water charges on the RV is a complete nonsense; I know of mansions that have a lower RV than an estate semi.
However I believe that approx one third of unmetered occupants would be worse off if metered.(self evidently two thirds would gain!!)
Unfortunately many of those paying more would be large families in less desirable properties and tend to be less affluent.
It would not be a popular move to make this section of society pay more.0 -
My current bill for 1st April 08 to 1st April 09 -- Yorkshire Water
As a single person living in a 3 bedroom house, at work during week. Would a meter be a saving?
Does a meter only affect the "Water Supply" charge, will my "Sewerage" charge remain unchanged. If this is the case i see no point in going on a water meter.RV Rate£(p) Charge --------------------------------------------- Water (SC) 34.36 Water Supply 140 103.200 144.48 Sfc Drainage & Sewerage (SC) 38.87 Sewerage 140 114.300 160.02 --------------------------------------------- (SC == Standing charge) Total 377.73
Any comments....??0 -
pingcrosby wrote: »My current bill for 1st April 08 to 1st April 09 -- Yorkshire Water
As a single person living in a 3 bedroom house, at work during week. Would a meter be a saving?
Does a meter only affect the "Water Supply" charge, will my "Sewerage" charge remain unchanged. If this is the case i see no point in going on a water meter.RV Rate£(p) Charge --------------------------------------------- Water (SC) 34.36 Water Supply 140 103.200 144.48 Sfc Drainage & Sewerage (SC) 38.87 Sewerage 140 114.300 160.02 --------------------------------------------- (SC == Standing charge) Total 377.73
Any comments....??
Welcome to the forum.
Almost certainly a saving - unless you water the garden daily!
You will pay xx pence for every Cubic metre of water you use and yy pence sewerage on every cubic metre + small standing charges
However you can change to a meter and if it doesn't work out cheaper you have 12 months to change back to your old system.
So you have nothing to lose!!!0 -
Can anyone explain this to me. Yorkshire water said that i should have a meter fitted as I have fallen behind with my payments. So I say OK then go ahead and fit one. As I live alone this should save me money. So I go to Uswitch and apply for a water meter. A week goes by and I get a letter from the water meter company saying they cant fit a meter due to a ccj (bad credit) but the ccj is from Yorkshire water who told me to have a meter fitted
,
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If you cannot have a meter fitted you can ask your company to base your bill on an assessed charge. Some companies calculate an assessed charge based on the number of occupants, some use the type of property (flat/maisonette, semi-detached or detached) some use the number of bedrooms and some on the average household charge. You will need to compare the assessed charge with your current bill to decide if you will save money. Your water company will be able to give you more information.
From the Consumer Council For water website - link here:
http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.7190 -
My water bill has just gone up from £46 a month to £53 a month according to the south west water letter i got this morning. wish they would reduce it instead off allways putting it up..0
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