Thames Water Meter

[marcelle]

Hi there.
I've a quick question re compensation and will make this as short as possible:

* I am self employed working and billing a company for my time.
* Thames Water promised to fit my water meter at 8am but on 4 occasions didn't arrive until after 11am (I left for work after then as time is money).
* Spoke to them several times after rebooked new appointments and was verbally told on the third occassion I would get receive compensation for their engineer not turning up on time.
* Asked them to put this in writing but letter never materialiesd
* On fourth occassion they were again late and I left for work
* Wrote letter to their customer services outlining the debacle and noting whether I was to be awarded money for my wasted time but they've denied this and also wrote me a letter saying they will not grant me this.

Do I have any rights or shoudl I just let it go?

Thanks in anticipation!

[marcelle]

bump

[marcelle]

bumpety bump

[marcelle]

bumpety bump bump!

[10110001]

There is no contract that enables you to charge a company for your time if they fail in their side of a agreement to perform a service.

You can, however, ask for your disbursements. These are your financial losses - damages - resulting from the failure of the other party to fulfil their side of an agreement.

Write to them asking for your losses, giving a list. If they decline to pay, then file a claim in the small track.

[paulgmb]

Why on earth would you want a water meter?

The more people that have these wretched things fitted voluntarily the sooner they will be made compulsory.

[10110001]

I agree, but some have metered water forced upon them by way of Section 144 of the Water Industry Act 1991.

If a property has a change of occupier the water company has a discretion to switch the method of charging for water from fixed to metered charge.

The metered charge also has a fixed charge, so in a 3 bedromed house tax band D consuming more than 193 litres of water a day (average over a full year) you will pay more in water charges. To illustrate this, an outside tap running will discharge 200 litres in about 8 minutes. The capacity of a 3.0 Jaguar petrol tank is 88 litres, and a 4ft rainwater barrel holds 500 litres.

Additionally, liability for accidental loss of metered water passes from water company to the consumer, and there is no compansation provision to make good the consumer's losses for insurance premiums and policy excess to cover for loss of metered water.

[paulgmb]

I wasn't aware they could impose them on you simply by changing occupier but will follow your link and check it out, thanks.
My understanding was that you could voluntarily ask for one and you have 12 months to request its removal or you are stuck with it, they are put into new properties or if you build an extention on your home the water company can impose them then as well?
I'm told they trawl through planning applications, or perhaps they 'bung' the Local Authorities to tip them off.
Whatever way you look at it they will impose them by stealth and so much for the Labour Party opposing them in opposition then supporting them in Government.
All I know is that these water companies (who like to make us think we live in a sub saharan climate where the nearest water is hundreds of miles away) continue to make vast profits and pay their shareholders massive dividends yet when I questioned Thames water about 2 years ago asking them to justify the 23%+ increase that year in my water rates, all they could say was they needed the money to replace ageing Victorian pipes and sewers in London and to fix all the leaks!!
Not to pay increased dividends to their shareholders then?
I wonder why last year they did away with their dedicated leakage units then?
I'm enjoying the extention I had built last year and the fact I still don't have a water meter, aren't loopholes great?!
Regards,
Paul.

[10110001]

Extending your property is not one of the grounds that enables a water company to switch the way you pay for water.

Its not the authorities that tip off the water companies. Its a change of bill-payer among other things that invokes the compulsory installation of a water meter.

[paulgmb]

Thanks for all this info.
Isn't it strange how the water companies claim you need to be there when you request one but when they impose one on you (from what I've been told) they turn up and do it regardless.
Perhaps its because the people that do actually request them know they will actually save money and we can't have the shareholders going without this Christmas now can we?
My Uncle who lives alone and is away probably for more than 3 months a year waited in 3 times for them to call on a pre arranged appointment and like the OP they didn't turn up. (He lives in Norfolk so not Thames Water.) When they eventually did turn up they claimed they couldn't find the supply to his property. All in all it took the best part of 9 months from point of ordering to getting it fitted.
He wasn't worried about it devaluing the property because he doesn't own it!
Regards,
Paul.

[10110001]

We have two properties, the metered property is a pied-a-terre property for our base at Gatwick Airport. Everything - plumbing wise - is brand new - low water consumption, no loft tanks, no immersion tanks, combi boiler with direct shower, 2ltr flush toilets and its supposed to save money?

By exact count, our accountant compared our unmetered bills to our metered bills, its a rise of 15.1% in water charges and the property is empty much of the time. He also manages our property in Dubai - we are based there - and our water charges per litre of desalinated sea water at our apartment costs less than half of what we pay in the UK's - 8.3p/cm3 plus standing charge.

I hate to think what a British stay-at-home family of four would get through in measured water.

It might not sound much, 0.08p for a litre of metered water - plus the standing charge - but it does add up, and like petrol, we - in Britain, a nation constantly flooded with water - are now paying one of the highest water charges on the planet.

[paulgmb]

I followed your link and read with great interest. So to use the salitation process is very costly but in comparison to what is charged per litre in the UK (metered) they charge less even after going through that process!!!

This is just another glaring example of 'R.O.B' rip off Britain at it very worst.

Not only have many parts of the UK been flooded out this year but unlike countries like Denmark which collect around 80% of rain water that falls on their country most of ours just runs into the rivers and out to sea, which is never far away in the uk. I think the furthest point to the sea here is a Derbyshire village which is about 66 miles.

I registered for the Thames Water consumer survey this year, (tipped off by people who work for them) and have enjoyed putting across many off these points to them whilst ignoring their leading questions.

I will keep trying to follow your other links but may have to wait until I'm back at work next week as this PC keeps freezing up when I try!

I have been laid up this week at home hence so much time on my home PC and have been looking in the US and elsewhere for potential presents and guess what?

Exactly the same product, same spec (or even better) only difference, hundreds of pounds cheaper. My brother warns me about duty and vat and vat on the duty etc, I didn't let him finish!!

Strange though, when I worked at LHR I seem to remember crowd control was necessary for foreign nationals queuing to claim back their vat on their purchases. We keep no records of how much is claimed back either because I asked!

Lets hope we get a great debate going here?

All the very best,

Paul.

[paulgmb]

I've read the link to the OFWAT website, very interesting!

I know for a fact that around 4(ish) years ago my local council were telling people that if they had extensions built they would have to have water meters fitted and I thought I heard the same thing from Thames Water. One person I know moved rather than extend their current property and the thought of having a water meter with 4 children in the house was one reason they decided to move rather than extend.

Well done 1011001 for exposing this myth!!