Mix-up with water bills
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Water companies say that water metering is the fairest way to pay for your water, because you're only billed for what you use. Roughly one in three homes has one, and on average, depending on the size of your family and your usage, a water meter can save you £50 a year.
But some people who'd hoped their meters would bring down their bills have ended up in very deep water, paying not just for what they themselves had used, but for their neighbour's supply too.
Three houses. One bill
Mike Beavis is with Britain's biggest water supplier, Thames Water. Mike asked Thames Water to fit a meter at his home, hoping that, since he lives alone, he'd make a significant saving. He was obviously rather surprised when he received his first new bill - showing that his payments were going up.
Mike immediately checked his meter, remembering his neighbour had once told him that they shared a water supply.
He says: "I ventured round to my next door neighbour's house, and turned his tap on, and went back out to the street, and looked at MY meter. It was going round. So I realised straight away that they'd put the meter on the shared service."
Took two months to sort out
In fact Mike's meter was clocking up usage for not one, but two of his neighbours' water. If that wasn't bad enough, it took two months of phone calls and emails to get Thames Water round to sort it out.
Mike told us he felt it was "an appalling situation, it's disgraceful. Its customer service was utterly non-existent. And that's what really made me angry."
Unfortunately Mike's isn't an isolated case.
Sarah Stead requested a water meter from Thames Water but was baffled by her first bill as well. The bill was almost £200 - the equivalent, for her, of a year's worth of water! She contacted Thames Water to find out what had gone wrong.
Company acknowledged the mistake
The utility company put their hands up - the bill was definitely too high. They told Sarah they would send an engineer round, within ten days, to get to the bottom of the problem.
Ten days came and went, yet no engineer turned up. Sarah called to find out what had happened and was assured somebody would be round in another ten days. Sarah waited patiently but, again, nobody came. Another appointment was made and, you've guessed it, no engineer appeared. Sarah began to worry, dreading there might be another bill soon.
Thames Water put the pressure on
Meanwhile, Thames Water was demanding that Sarah settle her original £200 bill in full. Worried, Sarah paid what she could afford - half the bill. Not content with that, Thames Water really put the pressure on. Sarah received a letter of intent. If she didn't pay the rest of the bill, Thames Water might contact bailiffs and try to get the money back from her bank account directly.
Sarah had no choice - she paid up.
Finally, after two and a half months, Thames Water did send out an engineer to look at the meter. He quickly spotted that - yes - Sarah had been billed for her water but also for her neighbour's - and for the lady at number 10 too.
Plumbing 101
We sent in our own expert, Henry Eldred, who told us:
"This is a very basic error. In fact, it's so basic, we would classify it as first day in plumbing school. I think Thames Water have acted appallingly. She is a customer, and when she complained, they should have sent an engineer out straight away."
So, it may sound extraordinary, but if you've got a water meter, and your bills are suddenly way more than they should be, who knows - maybe the neighbours could be having a drink, or even a long hot bath, on you.
Thames Water's response
Thames Water has since sent us the following statement.
"We supply water to 8.5 million water customers, of whom approximately one million are metered. For the whole of last year, we received 321 complaints from metered customers about being charged for other people's water. This is obviously 321 too many, but represents just 0.03 per cent of our metered customer base.
"We are working hard to improve our customer service performance and reduce this number of complaints."
"On this occasion, our processes did not work as they should, resulting in a delay to an engineer visiting the property of Lauren Everitt and Sarah Stead. A number of errors were also made in Mr Beavis's case. We would like to apologise to all these customers."
"Mr Beavis's case has been corrected, and we have made a £50 goodwill payment for his inconvenience."
"We understand that Lauren Everitt and Sarah Stead are due to leave their property in February and we will agree a final bill with them then. Based on what they have paid so far this year we estimate they may be due a refund of around £10. Once this amount has been confirmed, we will issue the refund with a £50 goodwill payment for the inconvenience they have experienced."
"It is our responsibility to ensure that our customers are billed correctly. Properties are moved to a metered charging basis in two ways. Firstly, Thames Water fit meters when customers request it. This work is carried out for us by contractors. We carry out routine audits of the quality of their work and where required, remedial actions are put in place. In extreme cases we would discontinue working with them."
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I would investigate Southern Water on this matter too. I was encouraged to save money by switching to a monthly direct debit (I previously paid my bill semi-annually).
I paid £60 for the first six months I was in the property. I then switched to direct debit and ended up paying £100 in three months without a satisfactory explanation.
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We have had a water meter fitted but had nothing through the door to say what to do... or to even say they had been.
of course the first thing to run water wise was our toilet and hot water...
a massive amount of dirt came through the toilet and we have had to replace the insides of that, and now our boiler needs a service to make sure that we have not got any excess dirt come through into the boiler.
all of which thames water have denied that they are at fault...
my boss (i am a nanny) and thier house, a few streets over got a card through stating what has happened, a reference number, and what to do (run the closest tap to the stop cock eg kitchen or utility room)...
we had none of this!!!
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My house has been flooding now for two and a half weeks and Thames Water have confirmed that the water is due to one of their main water pipes leaking but have been unable to find the leak. Their customer service is appalling and we have been told numerous times that they will call back or that their engineers will attend and on several occasions, this has not happened. Meanwhile my house continues to flood with thousands of pounds of damage to the structure.
Thames Water is by far the most incompetent company I have ever dealt with.
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Why are these people allowed to keep their jobs this is enough proof of their disgusting attitued and should be sacked immediatley with NO golden handshake and full loss of pension lets set some standards that makes them resposible for their cavalier attitued to the distress they put innocent people thru
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From a rateable value of £17-ish a month due to being a single person, at the water companies suggestion, I went onto a water meter. After 3 months I got a bill for over £1400 from Mid Kent Water. I was paying for my 3 neighbours and a water leak that wasn't mine. After 5 months it was sorted out but it was very stressful. Debbie, Ashford, Kent
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Am waiting for an engineer to test my meter tomorrow.
When parents died being the single person living in the home, I had a free meter fitted in 2008. 1st year brilliant estimated the yearly total £60. (£5 a month direct debit). Then in September 2008 the meter appeared to be leaking, so an engineer fixed it. I thought nothing of it until estimate for January 2009 came in £960.00!!!!. (£78 per month), they have just taken the 1st direct debit payment of £78. Thames Water engineer is arriving tomorrow to investigate the meter, why it has lept from 60 suddenly to 360. The leak has been fixed properly I presume. I have taken out an extra insurance policy because when I telephoned them to query the bill, if there is a leak in my system I will have to pay for repairs. The way the leaflet was worded, I hope I haven't added to my problems.
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We have had a classic example of incompetence courtesy of Thames Water...we received a water bill for our neighbour's water supply as instead of fitting our water meter, they had replaced his water meter with the one intended for our house. And of course a couple months later, they still have not fully rectified the situation.
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Southern Water have been even worse than Thames. I applied for a water meter but was told for 2 years that they were waiting for a part. Eventually got annoyed and one workman admited that the real problem was wet concrete some unknown person had put down my meter hole. They dug it out and replaced but after that my bills were about equal to my monthly rates!! Now sorted but I had been beside myself with worry. My current bills are yet to reach 50% of what my old combined water bills were (supply and sewage)
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Unbelievable! I have lost all faith in thames water,I have been incorrectly billed for my neighbours bill for the past 16yrs which only came to light two yrs ago as a larger family moved in and my bills soared! Have been trying to sort this out for the past two yrs without success,I think Thames water need to sort themselves out and start getting their facts right, and billing system in order,I am fuming,and still waiting to hear back from them.
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Thames Water fitted a water meter at my home over two years ago and I have had problems ever since. The customer service is apauling and I would switch if I could!!
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I am appalled that the Man from Thames Water should have the affrontery to offer compensation of only £50. The one customer was clearly in a very poor state having not been able to pay the demanded amount and then to suffer the emotional stress of being threatened. I am sorry but Julia you let him off the hook.
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I have had a water meter at my last 2 propertys. The first property i was paying not only for my own home but also for the property next door and it was empty. Now my second property is even worse, I have paid in excess of a £1000.00 pounds in 12 months. For the past three months I have asked united utilites to please take a look at my water meter as I know we do not use this much water. three months down the line I am still no closer to sorting this problem out. The have cut me off in the middle of calls, the most recent was tonight at 7:55, rude staff bad management.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Thanks Watchdog.. This was perfect news for me! I paid a bill last Septemebr that was twice as much as usual, Volume of water used had tripled.. I thought i'll pay it but query it.. With phone calls and e-mails afterwards. It is still not resolved.
I rang them again in December. They said they'll send an engineer out, Nothing!!. Customer services acknowledged my query, and said they'd reply in 20 working days - Nothing!!
Then a bill arrived for 3 months usage... And that was 2 and a half times what it normally is. At this rate my bills are going to triple!!!
This time I e-mailed [Personal details removed by Moderator], promissary letter of replying to me in 10 working days - Nothing!!!
Then I saw your item last night!! And this was a big help.. I've pinged a back up e-mail!! It's been acknoledged with a further 10 working day delay!!
I live in a block of flats so I wonder how many meters are hooked up to mine!!!!
Well done!!
Ian,
Hounslow
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Thames Water engineer just visited. Tested the Water Meter, no leak, not connected to any other supply (Terraced House in middle).
He has taken a reading and will phone it through to Thames Water metering department. Should be passed on to billing with a Leakage Allowance added hopefully bringing the costs down considerably. (Hopefully back to £5 a month). Just going to telephone Billing myself.
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Telephoned Thames Water after enginner left, he recorded the meter reading, and written confirmation that there is no leak in the system (including main supply to the house).
Told me to request a leak adjustment form from them.
This will take about 10 days.
Apparently the original engineer who fixed the leak, didn't do his job properly. Should have contacted me when he was going to fix the leak, so the test could have been done in September 2008, and the form sent sooner.
They are quick to take the 78 pounds from my account, very slow correcting the error and refunding me. If I cancel the Direct Debit, it will cost me money when time comes to start a new one. (If i chose to pay some other way it would be more expensive for me??).
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I'm currently having a fall out with Welsh Water. We moved into a managed property 2 months ago and have since moved out. In that 2 months Welsh water reckons we've used over 200 units of water!!
They swear blind that they took a reading in December of 468 and that my closing reading of 669 is accurate.
2 people, including me, live in our house and we don;t have any swimming pools!
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Yorkshire Water is in the same league as Thames Water. I had a meter installed in 1997. For the first 3 years the consumption was 72, 76 and 78 units per annum (4 quarters). I received a single quarterly bill in July 2004 for 50 units. I immediately inspected the meter to see if they had written down the wrong figures. Imagine my surprise when I found it was spinning and there was no water usage in the house. This started a saga with Yorkshire Water which has not come to an end yet. We are still in dispute. There were never any leaks in the house. There were never any leaks inside the boundary of the property. The water tank was found, in the year 2004, to contain about 4 inches of clay at the bottom. It was replaced. Ten days ago a new pipe was laid from the water meter outside the boundary of the property to the stopcock inside the house. While this was being done it was discovered that the water pipe was fractured after it left the water meter and before it entered the boundary of my property. This was causing an intermittent leak as the meter was not visibly spinning an all occasions that it was checked and Yorkshire Water doubted my word until their own people saw it with their own eyes. The meter was changed twice. The pipe is laid in clay soil and this explains the clay sediment in the water tank. For the whole time even now, Yorkshire Water maintain that they are not at fault in any way. In June 2008 I became the sole occupant of the property. I expected the water bill to fall slightly and my first 'solo' quarter was for 8 units of water which was lower. My next quarterly bill was for 15 units! So, out to the meter and lo and behold, there it was again, turning with no water usage in the house. So, a new pipe has been laid, the meter still turns with no usage, Yorkshire Water maintain a 'no fault' position. They did not pay for the pipe installation which meant digging up the garden and a concrete path. Yorkshire Water, previous to me receiving the 50 units bill did lay a new water main and their excavations were immediately adjacent to my water meter. Four and one-half years later, a three-inch thick file of letters, umpteen phone calls and several site visits and still no end. My advice to anyone thinking of installing a water meter is to think very hard and long before you do. From the water companies standpoint they are completely intractable, nothing ever goes wrong and if it does it is the customer who is at fault and has to pay. As an aside the actual meter readings are quite often illegible as water condenses above the figures and they can not be read.
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We are both retired there are 2 of us in the house, tried a water meter and after a year our waters bill was double compared to not using a meter, so within the year we were able to have it removed, next door neighbor's bill is a lot lower than ours and they are in the same position as we are. we live in a bungalow in Caerphilly.
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Thames Water
After my landlord UJIMA went down the khazi because of hopeless management Thames Water started threatening us with Debt collection. They then sent a water meter reader to read my water bill at number 48 and my neighbour at number 51. I have even sent them by email a copy of the meter reading in the meter reader’s own writing but they don't appear to want to read it again. I can read it again for them if they want me to. I am still waiting, Watchdog, for any response from them.
William, London
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Hi Watchdog
As I've worked within the water industry for a number of years I was interested in this story.
Customers of water companies who do not get a response to their enquiries from water companies within 10 working days are entitled to a payment under the GSS (Guaranteed Service Scheme). The lady in your report made contact with Thames Water on two occasions and did not get a response. Under the Scheme she is entitled to £50. Any goodwill payment is on top of this.
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When I moved from one property supplied by Thames Water to another, they promised to read the meter which, despite the property being under 10 years old, was not accessible by customers. However, they did not do this and instead sent me an estimated bill after 2 months which was equivalent to the whole of my previous year's usage. Despite numerous promises to read the meter - always within 10 days - and me making an interim payment which I believed was more accurate, I was threatened with a debt recovery agency. So I have now had to pay in advance for what I believe is a full year's water usage, and no guarantee that my meter will ever be read. I have been told that the section of the invoice which promises meter readings if requested is in fact a printing error.So I could end up paying a year's water usage every few months for as long as I stay here.
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In response to previous comments made on Southern Water. I also paid my last two six month bills in full at the totals of £83 and £76.
I spoke to southern water after paying the £83 bill to go on a direct debit monthly scheme. They worked it out at £15.90 a month which i've been paying for the last six months.
I then received a bill this month for the last six months water. The bill stated my direct debit payments had not been enough to cover this period, even though this was based on my previous two bills! According to the current bill, I have used four times as much water as I did to the previous six months to that and six months to that aswell.
I contacted Southern Water regarding the current bill. They told me to do a water test as I queried the charges. This I did and it seems I don't have a leak. I am now awaiting an engineer to come and have a look at what is going on.
After speaking to family, friends and neighbours about this. I have found out that they have also received bills which are much higher than their previous bills.
It seems that Southern Water have a major problem somewhere. Possibly with faulty water meters or a faulty billing system.
Has anyone else had these problems?!
Would be great if Watchdog could investigate.
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Ofwat has just announced a 4.1% increase in water charges. My supplier United Utilities has announced a 5.3%(£19) increase. I have just received my new bill and it has gone up from £498 to £532, an increase of 6.4%(£34).More than double the rate of inflation. How do they arrive at these fictious averages and why are they allowed to get away with these huge increases? This is a very large bill for a small semi. My bill has actually gone up 16% over the past 2 years. I have considered changing to a water meter but after reading of some peoples experiences I am in two minds about that.
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Looks like 3Valleys Water are also responsible! Have just found out that the meter fitted at our house in 2001 has been fitted to a pipe also supplying our next door neighbour and we have been paying for their water all of this time! Well, I say "we", my partner has been paying the huge bills since 2001 without realising they were huge. I moved in with him in September last year and it was me that realised that he was paying an awful lot more for his water than I used to at my house - and he was a single bloke, I was in a household of 3! Not sure what their customer services will be like regarding sorting this problem as only just queried it with them after receiving latest huge bill and only just managed to confirm it with the neighbours that by using their water they are certainly turning our meter! They feel awful, but it's certainly not their fault. So, will be putting my pen to paper tomorrow to try to write a letter to 3Valleys Water to see what they propose to do about the problem. On reading all the comments above though it looks as though I'm in for a long ride.... do I refuse to pay the latest huge bill until it's sorted do you think?
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red1in again - further to last message, could anyone tell me if I can expect a full refund of all the overpaid water charges since 2001 and how exactly they would work it out?
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I have been suspicious of my water bills for nearly 3 years now - this report makes a lot of sense and I do wonder whether my property might be affected. How can I find out if I too am being billed for neighbour/s water as well as my own?
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Dear madhouse-5. Check your meter when you are not running any water, if it's moving then someone else is using your water supply too. Obviously if none of your neighbours are in then this won't work unless they've left their washing machine on or something. My nice neighbours checked it with me and turned taps on and off which proved our meter was turning round when they used water. Good luck.
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I have owned a rental property for the past four years and after watching your programme my wife mentioned that we should check our meter in case it was feeding more than one property as the bills have always been high. I checked and confirmed that we were indeed paying for our neighbours property as well. I contacted Three Valleys Water and after some considerable hassle they confirmed that we were correct and refunded me £1200 which included interest on excess payments and £20 pa incompensation. I wonder how many people are actually in a similar position without realising it. Surely these cpmpanies owe it to their customers to issue a general letter asking each person to check their meters or at least do it themselves. The ironic thing is that the Three Valleys were able to confirm the error over the phone but still insisted on sending out an engineer who didn't bother turning up.
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