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A water company overcharges on your water bill, you get a water rebate right?
Author: Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.
A water company overcharges on your water bill, you get a water rebate right? Wrong! Really? Hard to believe isn’t it and in this case study to make it worse the water company overcharges is £70,000 and counting and that is just for 6 years. In fact this has been overcharged on this tariff since 2007, the annual overcharge in this case is £15,000. A quite staggering amount of money in consideration of the fact the charge is for a service not provided and this believe me is only the tip of a massive iceberg, there will literally be £millions lying in water companies bank accounts waiting to be claimed with many thousands of companies like your paying for services not provided.
With this case and a great many others it takes makes months of painful letter writing and phone calls to reach a settlement. It is very much different when a water bill pops onto your purchase ledger and requires payment within 14 days. Try making a claim for a water bill rebate due to a water company overcharge, dependent on the claim anything from 6 months to more recently 1 1/2 years!! well what’s the rush, especially if the refund of overcharges is due. “customer service” all water companies are banging on about “customer service” well in my book cases of water companies overcharging customers and refunding monies in a reasonable time sits fairly and squarely under “customer service” we have yet to see it though.
If my company were interested in checking water bills for incorrect charges and water bill refunds, which water company areas do I need to focus on initially?
Well the most prolific area of overcharging based on our historical water audit cases is for charges relating to property drainage – Banded area charges – surface water and highways drainage charges.
What is this charge for?
The charge relates to collection, conveyance and treatment of rainwater that falls onto your property.
I receive water bills from more than one water company, which water bills do I need to pull out for further examination?
The main water company bills to review are: –
In England.
* United Utilities
* Severn Trent Water
* South Staffordshire Water
* Northumbrian Water
* Yorkshire Water
In Scotland.
* Scottish Water Business Stream
* United Utilities Scotland
* Aimera
* Commercial Water Solutions
* Cobalt Water
* Source for Business
* Thames Water Commercial Services
* Castle Water
* Severn Trent Services
* Clear Business Water
* Real Water
* NWG Business
* Blue Business Water Ltd
How many copy bills will I need?
One for each site, page 1 and 2 showing the full breakdown of charges, scan and email them to nicky.mann@h2obuildingservices.co.uk and within 7 days our water audit team will complete a water audit and email you a report as to any savings going forwards and details of any potential water bill rebates, you are under no obligation to proceed.
Potential savings and refunds of £1,00 to £500,000 could be achieved.