Surface Water Charges on Water Bill : New Soakaway

[RedHerring2]

Does anyone know if it's possible to have the "Surface Water" part of the water bill reduced if previously all of the surface water was discharging into the combined system but now less than half of it will discharge into the system.

OK, it's only just over £50 per year. But I'm not in the habit of paying if it can be avoided.

Yes, I appreciate that it all finds its way into the waterways eventually, but it's no longer going via the treatment works.

 

[Mw Roofline]

Yes

It's only about £17 pa but better in your pocket than theirs.

Sometimes they will take your word for it when you call to ring them, others send a surveyor round to take a look. If your house is a new build or had a past rear extension where now all of the surface water drains into soakaways/chambers and you still have a copy of the plans, then some water companies backdate it to that date and give you a huge rebate!

 

[Mw Roofline]

Let me know how you get on as i'm building our new house in Staffs and will be contacting them in the next few months as built 2 mother-of-all soakaways.

 

[Paul_C]

Maybe different criteria are applied by different regions, but in my case (Anglian Water) the requirement to get the rebate was that no surface water from my property should discharge into the sewer system.

That's not a problem for me, as I live on a private estate with unmade roads which have no drainage installed, but my understanding is that even if no rain/surface water discharges directly into the sewer within your property, you can still not get the rebate if you have surface water which runs from any part of your property onto a public footpath/street and thence into their surface drains.

In my case when I applied upon learning about the rebate some years ago, it was all accepted without any checking. I just submitted a quick hand-drawn plan of the property showing the location of the three rainwater downpipes and soakaways, the layout of the sewer system, and made a note that I had verified that no rainwater was discharging into the latter by pouring water down each downpipe in turn and observing that none appeared in the main sewer line at the last inspection manhole.

 

[Mickymoody]

Does anyone know if it's possible to have the "Surface Water" part of the water bill reduced if previously all of the surface water was discharging into the combined system but now less than half of it will discharge into the system.

OK, it's only just over £50 per year. But I'm not in the habit of paying if it can be avoided.

Yes, I appreciate that it all finds its way into the waterways eventually, but it's no longer going via the treatment works.

You can claim the expenses back, for upto 10 years I believe?

 

[Nige F]

You cant claim any back payments . First job I did @ this house was to get the surface water charge knocked off Took 2 calls to water co. 1st one tried to give me BS. Interesting point for DIY not `ers - Particularly the trades - I know of 2 places where a small estate was built with a communal soakaway- would each house pay me £ a small sum to tell them how to save £18 a year forever

 

[Paul_C]

You'd think that if a company had been charging you for a service it had not provided, you'd be able to reclaim the amounts paid, but sure enough, I checked the paperwork from when I applied for the rebate at the beginning of 2004, and they applied it only back as far as April 2003, i.e. the current year.

For Anglian Water customers, the saving is now £35 per year.

 

[libby lou lou]

Yes, it is possible, also, i enquired about running my roof water running to french drains, a saving of £50 a year, the holes have been half dug for 12 month.

 

[JamesA]

Anglian Water adjusted our billing straight away with a simple email.

This leads me to believe they have a list of all existing properties that shouldn't be paying.

Of course, they make no effort to tell people...

 

[Nige F]

You`re right My first call to South East Water met with BS The second - you could hear the guy tapping his computer keyboard -looking @ the plans . Shame .I wanted a showdown with them

 

[RedHerring2]

Thanks to all for the input. In the next week or two I'll be redirecting the surface water, from the back half and the end hip, from the foul water system to the new soakaway. Then I'll try the water company, see what happens.
I'll add the results when I have them.

 

[JamesA]

...of course if everyone who is entitled to the discount claims it then we'll all end up paying more.

 

[RedHerring2]

...of course if everyone who is entitled to the discount claims it then we'll all end up paying more.

I'm sure we'll all end up paying more, but not for that reason.
The rebate is provided 'cos it saves them money due to not needing to process relevantly clean water, i.e surface water. I doubt that they pass on all their savings.