News

Great news for business customers on undercharged water bills.

Water Companies will only be permitted to back charge commercial customers on undercharged water bills a maximum of 16 months when the English water retail market opens April 1st 2017.

This will be a new code of practise under new rules laid out by the regulator OFWAT.

This new water company back charge policy is a considerable change from the statutory 6 years in place at present.

There will be no doubt that the water companies will now be putting in place even more resources into identifying those businesses and public sector organisations who are potentially being undercharged.

There is no information as to any change in the code of practise in relation to water company overcharges, so the presumption is the 6 years plus is still in force.

Although some water companies such as Yorkshire Water and United Utilities still insist on refusing to refund water bill overcharges on some fixed charges such as surface water and property drainage charges.

This has been going on for years with the regulator OFWAT’s full knowledge and an apparent refusal to take more robust action to reverse water company policies.