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Water audit reveal substantial overcharges – Thankyou Severn Trent Water

Author: Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert. 

Historical water audit reveal substantial overcharges by Severn Trent Water, H²O Building Services were asked to complete a water audit on a client’s site that was demolished over 1 year ago, the water supply had been disconnected however our main concern was the very high surface water area charges that were still being levied by Severn Trent Water. Our surveyor was dispatched to the demolished site to discover that all of the surface water that fell onto the site discharged to a water course, so effectively the water company had been over charging for several years.

H²O Building Services drafted a detailed claim and after several months a refund cheque was sent for £ 35,099.

Further investigations revealed that Severn Trent Water had not in fact refunded all monies overcharged and a further request plus supporting evidence was submitted and a further cheque for £ 16,679 was sent.

It has to be said that Severn Trent Water refused on the first application to refund all of the overcharges and the final £ 16,679 had to be demanded.

Senior Water Consultant Graham Mann said ” Over the last few years Severn Trent Water have demonstrated some very underhand dealings, by refusing to refund all overcharges and in some instances we have been informed that the customer was never charged in certain historical periods when they had been thereby holding onto large overcharge amounts. A prime example, a couple of months ago was a case of a shortfall of £ 50,000, claiming the customer was never charged for the service during 2004, evidence was uncovered via the clients billing system to the contrary. These are substantial sums of money, we estimate tens of millions remains unclaimed from Water Companies.