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Water audit reveals a 19 year water company overcharge and a £24,000 water bill rebate

Author: Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.

Water audit experts at H²O Building Services provide Wolseley Plc who are the number one national distributor of heating and plumbing products  and building materials with a national water bill validation and bureau service, which incorporates a pro-active water and waste water cost reduction service. During the course of an audit it became apparent that a site supplied by South East Water for water services and served by Southern Water for waste water services had been billed for 19 years on the wrong water meter. A claim was submitted to South East Water resulting in a refund of £ 10,000, a further claim for all of the waste water charges has been submitted to the waste water provider Southern Water.

Several weeks after the claim was submitted to Southern Water the reply was “we can only refund back to 2008 as before then we had a systems error” as with most claims sent to water companies for water bill rebates excuses are often the first line of defence. Our general rule in all cases where a water company overcharges customers is if water bills are incorrectly levied and paid and in the future overcharges are identified then all monies should be repaid plus interest.

Needless to say the offer to refund back to 2008 was immediately rejected and now Southern Water are calculating the repayment back dated the full 19 years.

Click here for a copy of the water rebate cheque Water bill rebate cheque