High water bill from leak. Am I liable?
After some advise if possible. To cut a long story short...
On 7th January we received our quarterly water bill. It's usually around £30 however this time it was £300. It said on the letter that the high usage indicates a leak. This bill is dated 10th December, nearly a month ago! I can't see a leak anywhere and everything seems normal.
I phone up and the lady goes through all the jargon and tells me not to worry as because I am renting, I will not be liable for the bill and to just get my landlord to get a plumber out to fix the problem. She said that she can see the leak has been on going from August. Landlord sent someone out and turns out it was something to do with the toilet however the cistern is behind a wall so we wouldn't hear it.
I phone up yorkshire water to tell them its all sorted and they tell me to take a 2 week meter reading to work out my average.
I just phoned up with my meter readings and she says that we are still liable to pay that bill. Now my arguement is, should I be liable for something they was aware of for 5 months? And even then they made a formal letter about the leak yet waited nearly a month for the letter to be sent. Now the bill will be even higher than £300 as it doesnt include from 10th December to 7th Jan. I'm currently waiting for some other team to get back to me.
On 7th January we received our quarterly water bill. It's usually around £30 however this time it was £300. It said on the letter that the high usage indicates a leak. This bill is dated 10th December, nearly a month ago! I can't see a leak anywhere and everything seems normal.
I phone up and the lady goes through all the jargon and tells me not to worry as because I am renting, I will not be liable for the bill and to just get my landlord to get a plumber out to fix the problem. She said that she can see the leak has been on going from August. Landlord sent someone out and turns out it was something to do with the toilet however the cistern is behind a wall so we wouldn't hear it.
I phone up yorkshire water to tell them its all sorted and they tell me to take a 2 week meter reading to work out my average.
I just phoned up with my meter readings and she says that we are still liable to pay that bill. Now my arguement is, should I be liable for something they was aware of for 5 months? And even then they made a formal letter about the leak yet waited nearly a month for the letter to be sent. Now the bill will be even higher than £300 as it doesnt include from 10th December to 7th Jan. I'm currently waiting for some other team to get back to me.
Did you ask your landlord to pay?
1: A constant flow or water into the toilet pan
or
2: A constant flow of water coming from the overflow pipe causing a puddle around the outside of your property
water company not responsible if the leak is internal.
exactly this .... 10 times your normal water consumption and you did not notice water flowing into the toilet pan or a damn big puddle outside somewhere ....
EliTom
I live in a complex that has a swimming pool and communal showers so the only water is toilet, washing machine and tap.
would I not have a case if the water company knew about it from august and said nothing to me until January where even that bill is dated a month ago? surely that's just them fleecing cash out of the customer..
It honestly wasn't noticable unless you really looked for it.
This is one reason I'm not on a meter. Judging by my neighbours bills you pay a lot less than me but when events like this occur that's where you pay.
I been to plenty of houses and the problem is that new toilets overflow into the toilet bowl. A lot of the time it really is unnoticeable. And if its running for 3 months constantly you will only notice it when you receive your bill. I would suggest you be persistent with the water company and they may write it off.
citizensadvice.org.uk/con…ks/
that is not what it says
this pages says the following
What if you rent your home or your supply pipe serves several properties?
If you rent your home, your landlord is responsible for maintaining the supply pipe.
OP says the problem was with a leaking toilet cistern - that has nothing to do with the supply pipe
EliTom
I am not surprised at all by not noticing any leakage - it can take several months for leaks to be suspected. Anyone without a meter could take even longer to suspect a leak.
It is true your water supplier needs to be paid for the water and it is the consumer who must pay that. You may be able to negotiate with your landlord to pay some or all of the excess. You may be able to negotiate with your water supplier to pay in instalments. Your tenancy agreement may have fuller details on all of this.
It occurs to me that there maybe some buildings insurance in force that may help.
Good Luck.
yorkshirewater.com/leaks
the water company didn't know about the leak since august
they looked back and saw you had higher usage and so used a bit of logic to deduce thats when the leak had started
there are no panels with flashing red lights and alarms linked up to your house that the negligently ignored
Yes. Water leaks in your property are your responsibility, not the water board.
That's funny as I've just had a call back and had it explained that I am not responsible. This is from the water company themselves. This property is not mine. Please read before posting incorrect information.
but are they saying that THEY are responsible?
Basically they said my landlord was responsible and I explained the situation to him. He basically said the same as I thought, letting it go on for 5 months and making no attempt to contact the customer is ethically wrong. As well as this, writing a letter highlighting a problem and then not sending it to the customer straight away or even phoning the customer is disgraceful.
I then complained to Yorkshire water and they have dropped all charges and revised my bill to £45 for 4 months.
So for anyone reading this in the same position as me, ignore all comments on here saying that you are responsible. You are not.
just because they waived the bill doesn't mean they have accepted responsibility
ofc the landlord thought the same as you - he wanted to blame someone else as well!
If would get all statements from Yorkshire Water in writing if you have not got them already.
Sounds like you were lucky with YW and if you only have verbal agreements with them they *may* prove worthless in the future.
just saying ...
EliTom
The voice of reason! This entitlement culture knows no bounds.
What do you mean prove worthless in the future? The bill has already been changed. That 45 is the total of 4 months use.
But it wasn't just the landlord that thought the same as me? The water company thought the same as me? For example the charges were dropped for this reason...
Do you think they just drop a 400 pound bill just willy nilly? No. They didn't act correctly when they spotted the leak, they rectified that.
Errr you are & next time you have an obvious leak you should have spotted months ago I will bet you that you dont get the same result.
At the end of the day you knew the system was leaking & done nothing about it until you got a bill.
Where did I say I knew about the leak?
wrong, you stamped your foot and had a tantrum and they wrote it off
not a first, quick google shows they have written off bills of tens of thousands
quick google also shows who is responsible for leaks on a property
you seem to have trouble understanding a couple of other points such as when the leak was spotted and delivery times (got a post mark?) automated billing etc
probably wrote it off as takes them too many man hours to deal with you!
Wrong. Who is right here, brilly off hotukdeals or employee for yorkshire water? I know you want to get off on someone's misery but its time to let this one go. The outcome has been resolved and you are wrong. Also when does delivery of a letter take a month.
you really are a bit slow aren't you - remember how you spoke to an employee at the start? they said your landlord was liable but oh no you dont want to listen to that - only the one that suits you.
when they paid have the admitted liability?
did you get a posting date off the letter? even if it did take a month thats a fraction of the amount anyway
sheesh, almost want to pay your 300quid to shut you up as well!
Like I have said before..
It was an obvious leak & you ignored it for months until you got the bill. You were then told by your water company that the bill was correct & you were to pay it or your landlord.
To even attempt to suggest you & your landlord were not responsible is a joke and not only are you insulting the intelligence of the readers of this thread but also insulting the intelligence of those that contributed to it.
Pretty poor behaviour.
So to summarise, you can't find where I said I knew about the leak.
Pretty poor behaviour.
Yes they did admit liability which is why they wiped a now 400 pound bill. Do you understand?
Calm down, no need to get angry when you are wrong. Just walk away, its OK. You can do it.
i understand that getting a straight and truthful answer out of you is nigh on impossible
you only seem to pick and choose what you want to hear then just make up the rest
never mind, at least it got you your money... well it wasnt really yours but lets no split hairs eh
Oh so now I'm lying because you can't handle being wrong. You are ruining this community site. I was merely putting up what had happened to help others in the same situation.