Southwest water issues

Calgar117

Calgar117

Calgar117

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Joined
21 Jul 2010
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829
Hey Guys

Just after some advice really

Recently moved into a first floor flat with my girlfriend which is a 2 bedroom its basically a house with a top and bottom flat owned by 2 different landlords.

Basically my first call to southwest water was to advise i have moved into the property i was quoted around £110 per month and was very quickly rushed into my card details being handed i made some excuse to say i would callback,

Afer thinking about it i thought that couldnt be right as it was far too excessive when calling them back i disputed that charge after couple mins on the call they said because the house shares the mains water supply to both the flats it means i would be on a fixed rate cost and given a monthly quote of £42, happy days

Got a bill through the post and now im being quoted £64 a month, not happy with this made another phone call to them telling them what i was quoted, i was told that that is the amount i will be paying and i need to fill in some assessment papers to have an engineer out to see if a water meter can be fitted into the property i disputed advising i was told by them it was not possible due to 2 flats sharing the same water supply person i was speaking too was very rude and said this needs to be done.

My next arguement was well what about the previous tennants why was this not done with previous tennants and essentually blocked me off saying she wasnt at liberty to discuss previous tennant's agreement

Just some more info it is a rented property and my landlord is not responible for the water charges

Advise please as i am at my witts end! :(
 
You need to get back onto them and speak to a manager of some description. They are right about the previous tenants though. Any previous agreements are nothing to do with you. However paying £64pm for water is just silly. We are in a 3 bed house and pay a fixed rate of £50pm because we dont have a meter.

Ask for them to read up on notes left from your previous conversation regarding the quote for £42. The calls should be recorded as well so they can arrange to listen back to it.

Regardless of who they send out to have a water meter fitted - it cannot be fitted without the landlords permission. And he probably wont want one. They will also need permission off the people living in the other flat too. Needless to say its a pretty slim chance of that happening.

Haev you discussed with them to find out how the bill has amounted to £62? If the property has no water meter then they can only charge you a fixed rate....does it say that £62 is the fixed rate on the bill?
 
South westwater have always been known to charge silly amounts, my major complaint and im not sure how to proceed is the fact i was quoted that amount over the phone and they confirmed no water meter could be installed due to the property now they upped the monthly charge and said they need an engineer to ''assess'' if a water meter can be installed or not!.
 
they specifically confirmed if no water meter can be installed (which they said they confirmed it would be £42 a month fixed rat, the figure £64 is their estimate of what the property uses but how they know that with no meter installed is my question!

i think i am best in contacting them back and speaking to a manager or contacting ofwat
 
Calgar117 said:
South westwater have always been known to charge silly amounts
Click to expand...

Sadly that's largely due to the area we live in.

High proportion of coastline, relatively small population compared to the area covered, plus the very large changes in usage during holiday seasons to name a couple of things.

We end up paying more because of those factors amongst other things.

A bit of info here on the matter http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/future/customers/metering/res_ofw_201101defraswt.pdf
 
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As for your issue, call back and speak to a team leader or whatever they are calling them these days to start to get it sorted, the guys on the phones are not consistent ;)

If still not satisfied then go through the complaints procedure before going to ofwat, I'll bet it won't get that far though.

(I worked there for 5 years, wife still does, not in the call centre though!)
 
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