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£Millions worth of water refunds remain unclaimed by UK companies due to water company overcharging.
Author: Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.
£Millions worth of water refunds remain unclaimed by UK companies due to water company overcharging.
Many businesses with
in the UK are unaware that they are being overcharged by their water company, some of the refunds paid out are quite staggering, figures range from a few hundred pounds to over £ 200,000 on single sites and in some case around £900,000 across multiple sites.
Overcharging by water companies can take many forms from simple incorrect tariff applications to more complex surface water pipe adoption issues and in some cases refunds have been identified going back 12 years. It certainly appears that the more complex larger numbers requires high levels of expertise applied during a water audit and negotiation skills when it comes to making claims to water companies for the refunds. More often than not the water companies will apply different methods in an attempt to reject a claim, for instance : –
Only refunding overcharges back to April 1st of the current financial year or “it’s not our policy to refund” only reducing the charges going forwards and in further cases claim “we do not keep records back that far”.
Most businesses are given to believe once an overcharge is identified and the claim accepted the water company would refund all the monies over the period of the back charge, this is not so. Examples of typical overcharging scenarios – Scottish water area.
* Water meter standing charges – In most cases a standing charge for water and waste water is applied and is dependent on the size of the water meter, the size of the water meter is often related to the supply pipe size, for instance a 54mm water supply, this will normally have a 50mm water meter fitted. The highest standing charges are levied in the Scottish water area with the incumbent supplier Business Stream, a 50mm water meter has a combined water and waste water standing charge of £ 5,476 per annum and a 40mm meter standing charge is £ 2,464 per annum. If you were charged based on a 50mm water meter and in fact only a 40mm water meter is actually installed the difference in annual standing charges is £3,012, the overcharge would be in excess of £ 15,000.
* Trade effluent charges all water company areas Leisure Centres – There are many leisure centres with swimming pools and are billed for waste water based on trade effluent (if a trade effluent consent has been applied which is 45% less than the standard domestic rate. If the trade effluent consent charges are not set up correctly and applied by the water company the typical overcharge could amount to an average of between £ 3,000 – £ 5,000 per year dependent upon discharge volumes. In a recent case a water company overcharged on trade effluent nearly £ 70,000 over 12 years was refunded.
* Trade effluent charges all water company areas Manufacturing – A large portion of trade effluent charges are incorrect mainly because of a reliance on the water companies to charge correctly. The waste discharge is calculated on a complex formula, in simple terms you pay according to the solids content and other factors, the actual consent is dependent on the production process, if no form of on site sample monitoring and volumetric monitoring exists then the charges are usually based on “spot” samples and all charges for the previous period are based on that one sample and if at the time of the “spot” sample the factory is discharging a high solids content (even for a short period of time) the charges for the charging period will be based on that one short discharge, therefore the customer is being overcharged.
It is down to the customer to make sure their charges are correct as most water companies will tell you, just take a look at this 2 minute video, the numbers are quite staggering!
youtube.com/watch?v=JGKxbbY24a4