Do I pay water rates at an unoccupied property??

[kingandy2nd]

Hi all,

I was hoping for some advice/experiences with water rates at unoccupied property.

I bought my house in Dec 07 and wrote to UU advising I’d taken ownership and requested that the water supply be disconnected. (The house was to be totally refurbished including replacing all the old internal lead pipework so no water/sewerage was required).

Sometime in Spring I got a letter for UU which said something to the effect that ‘To The Occupier, Our records show this property to be vacant and we will be calling to disconnect the water supply to stop any possible leaks’. I thought this would be fine as this is what I’d requested… but didn’t hear any more after that.

OK - I accept some blame here for not following up on that letter, but my girlfriend and I were doing this house up as a project on our own and after reading the letter I pretty much forgot about it… well until yesterday.

Yesterday I received a bill from UU for £403! This bill relates to a period before I owned the house, and for the water/sewerage rates up until March 09. I’m assuming they didn’t get/read my initial letter as the bill is still addressed to ‘The Occupier”.

I had thought that by advising UU that I didn’t require a water supply I wouldn’t have to pay the full water rates, and that I’d only be charged for drainage of rainwater, etc.

I’ve scoured the UU website but can’t find any info, but other water supplier’s websites do tend to point to a discount when the water is disconnected. You guys and girls are always knowledgeable about such things, so I thought I’d get your thoughts/experiences before speaking to UU.

Thanks!

 

[aptsys]

I'm not sure about UU's policies, but I called Anglian Water to say my house would be unoccupied for 6 months whilst it was being refurbished and they confirmed I didn't have to pay anything until I contacted them to say I had moved in. They didn't shut off the water or anything during that time though.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Thanks for your input – glad to hear that other water companies have this policy. It’ll probably be just my luck if UU don’t have the same policy.

It would be fair to charge me for something I haven’t used… but I guess life isn’t always fair!

 

[kingandy2nd]

Me again. Just thought I’d update this post in case anyone needs to reference it in the future.

I spoke to UU and they had received my letter but not updated their records property.

I was asked if we’d been doing plastering/rendering work at the property – which we had. UU have a standard charge of £28 for the water used for this during a refurb and that’s it.

A bit of a difference from the 400 quid previously asked for!!

All they asked is that as soon as the property get furnished, that I inform them as then the normal water rates will apply again.

 

[uknokianut]

Might be easier in the future to get a meter installed, then if you dont use any water , you wont get a bill.

 

[mattylad]

Did yo not bring your water in a container thinking that the water had been turned off?

 

[oilman]

Why not do it the easy way and telephone the water company and ask them? They know far more about what they do than almost everybody who posts here.