Help needed with Southern Water bill.

[Stat Brother]

Ages ago, Southern Water put meters in further down my road, stopping about 5 doors away, leaving the last 10(ish) houses. At the time I just assumed they'd be back soon enough, they never returned.

A fair few months later I noticed they had without warning cancelled my direct debt, I guess they thought the job was done too.

Anyhoo I did what I guess most of us would do, even though I knew I shouldn't and left it be, forgetting all about it.

Finally today THE letter has arrived:-

We are having problems in switching the meter on at your property (that's cos it's not there). We are working hard to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately at the time the meter was due to be switched on, we froze your account and you have not been charged for your water since April 2012.

blah blah, we now need to send you your bill from 01.04.12 to 31.03.13 and 01.04.13 to 31.03.14.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, in recognition I have credited your account with £25, as a gesture of goodwill.

So basically 2 years water bill in one hit.

Now I'm no weasel, I know my responsibilities, I know I should have sorted all this out when I realised THEY had frozen my account and weren't going to put the meter in.

With all the facts at hand, my question is:-

How do I handle them when the very big bill arrives and they want all their money, asap?

As said I know I have to pay, but I don't see why I should make it easy for them.

 

[Gwm]

Pay it in instalments ?

 

[LamieRobertson]

Ages ago, Southern Water put meters in further down my road, stopping about 5 doors away, leaving the last 10(ish) houses. At the time I just assumed they'd be back soon enough, they never returned.

A fair few months later I noticed they had without warning cancelled my direct debt, I guess they thought the job was done too.

Anyhoo I did what I guess most of us would do, even though I knew I shouldn't and left it be, forgetting all about it.

Finally today THE letter has arrived:-

We are having problems in switching the meter on at your property (that's cos it's not there). We are working hard to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately at the time the meter was due to be switched on, we froze your account and you have not been charged for your water since April 2012.

blah blah, we now need to send you your bill from 01.04.12 to 31.03.13 and 01.04.13 to 31.03.14.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, in recognition I have credited your account with £25, as a gesture of goodwill.

So basically 2 years water bill in one hit.

Now I'm no weasel, I know my responsibilities, I know I should have sorted all this out when I realised THEY had frozen my account and weren't going to put the meter in.

With all the facts at hand, my question is:-

How do I handle them when the very big bill arrives and they want all their money, asap?

As said I know I have to pay, but I don't see why I should make it easy for them.

You seem from previous posts to be an intelligent chap...so i dont understand why you maybe havent sifted away the amounts you would normally have paid ...or in fact sent them them money by cheque....written to them...phoned then etc. Seeing as i am a SWA customer who pays my way i wouldnt want you to get preferential treatment....having said that it was there daft fault and i would have thought they should just add last years to this years monthly payments ...you can now of course give that £25 to charity

 

[Southstandfaithful]

As mentioned above ring them and agree a payment plan that you are happy with...... I have recently moved from a non metered supply to a metered supply and my bill has gone from 90 a month water and waste to 30..... So it might not be as bad as you are thinking.......

 

[Stat Brother]

Pay it in instalments ?

Yeah that's the least I expect, but naturally I'd prefer not to have to pay twice my original DD.

The letter clearly admits their guilt, I'm after techniques to use this to my advantage when sorting out the repayment.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

Ignorance is no defence but insanity might be,plead insanity.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Yeah that's the least I expect, but naturally I'd prefer not to have to pay twice my original DD.

The letter clearly admits their guilt, I'm after techniques to use this to my advantage when sorting out the repayment.

***&^^^%^%^%^!!!! pay up!

 

[Stat Brother]

You seem from previous posts to be an intelligent chap...so i dont understand why you maybe havent sifted away the amounts you would normally have paid ...or in fact sent them them money by cheque....written to them...phoned then etc. Seeing as i am a SWA customer who pays my way i wouldnt want you to get preferential treatment....having said that it was there daft fault and i would have thought they should just add last years to this years monthly payments ...you can now of course give that £25 to charity

Yeah the money is about, kind of, you know how it is!
Yes I should have acted when I did notice what they'd done.
As said, I didn't pick up on it for a fair few months, the whole point of having a DD is to take away monthly money management.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Ignorance is no defence but insanity might be,plead insanity.

O..i think you are on to winner there

 

[LamieRobertson]

Yeah the money is about, kind of, you know how it is!
Yes I should have acted when I did notice what they'd done.
As said, I didn't pick up on it for a fair few months, the whole point of having a DD is to take away monthly money management.

Umm..but to you not reconcile your bank account..to make sure those nasty peeps dont take took much?

 

[Stat Brother]

***&^^^%^%^%^!!!! pay up!

Thy will be done, just how?

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

O..i think you are on to winner there

We have a few good character referees we could call upon of the boards.......

 

[LamieRobertson]

We have a few good character referees we could call upon of the boards.......

me thinks there be more than a few

 

[Kumquat]

Yeah that's the least I expect, but naturally I'd prefer not to have to pay twice my original DD.

The letter clearly admits their guilt, I'm after techniques to use this to my advantage when sorting out the repayment.

If they've admitted guilt then you have them over a barrel. Just say you can afford £5 a month or something minimal. They'll try and argue with you but ultimately you just have to keep saying that it's their fault and they've admitted it and you can't afford the increased DD. They will settle for what you can pay eventually. Obviously though you'd have to deny all awareness of what was going on which yu have failed to do in your post, so i'd keep stumm about that when talkin to them!

 

[Stat Brother]

Umm..but to you not reconcile your bank account..to make sure those nasty peeps dont take took much?

I don't make a habit of it.
The 'house account' runs a fairly hand to mouth, monthly cash in covering DD's coming out, and not used for anything else.

Southern Water may a brought the odd bag of dog food over the last fiscal year!

 

[LamieRobertson]

tell them you now live in Cyprus

 

[LamieRobertson]

I don't make a habit of it.
The 'house account' runs a fairly hand to mouth, monthly cash in covering DD's coming out, and not used for anything else.

Southern Water may a brought the odd bag of dog food over the last fiscal year!

I reconcile mine purely because there has been occasions when companies have taken out money they shouldnt have

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Given it's their mistake and your mistake why not offer to pay ( in instalments ) what the estimated METER reading would be rather than the rateable value ( I am of course assuming there is only one or two of you living at the property )?

 

[Stat Brother]

Given it's their mistake and your mistake why not offer to pay ( in instalments ) what the estimated METER reading would be rather than the rateable value ( I am of course assuming there is only one or two of you living at the property )?

The water bill has been pretty static over the years. TBH I think a meter may well have saved us money.

I just got the advance warning letter this morning.
I'm sure the bill will arrive early next week, and I just know they will either want all the outstanding by return, or 'helpful' repayments of say £160 a month.

As said I'd prefer to make the repayment as painless as possible, all the while honouring the debt they induced.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

The water bill has been pretty static over the years. TBH I think a meter may well have saved us money.

I just got the advance warning letter this morning.
I'm sure the bill will arrive early next week, and I just know they will either want all the outstanding by return, or 'helpful' repayments of say £160 a month.

As said I'd prefer to make the repayment as painless as possible, all the while honouring the debt they induced.

Well the good news is that it's close to impossible for a water company to cut off a domestic customer so just as you offer to pay something ( £10 per month ? ) towards the debt they'll have to lump it.