News

£9,000 water bill caused by faulty water meter.

Author:  Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.

The UK’s leading chain of builders merchants and suppliers of building products with over 600 branches commissioned water experts H²O Building Services to provide a Water Bill Validation and Bureau Service, incorporating pro-active monitoring and targeting and driving down water costs as an integral part of the groups environmental and efficiency strategy.

All water bills for the company are sent directly to the bureau team at H²O where the billing data is logged onto the water database, verified and authorised for payment unless of course there are billing errors or increases in water consumption. In this instance a water bill was received for over £ 9,000 well in excess of previous consumption, immediately the site was informed and water meter readings were requested. The meter was located in an underground chamber and on inspection it was reported the meter chamber was full of water and that a leak noise could be heard. As the meter installation is the property of the water company an urgent call to South West Water was made for site attendance to repair the water leak contributing to the high water bill.

South West Water reported that their was a water leak within the meter chamber which has now been repaired and as the leak was the fault of the water company the water audit team made a claim for a refund of all the water and waste water costs incurred as a result of the water leak. This has now resulted in a refund / credit onto their account of £ 7,800.