OT Anyone here with Southern Water?

[tim....]

HI,

I'm moving into a new property in their area and I'm told that it doesn't have a meter.

It's a flat and I don't think that I will be allowed to have one fitted I (certainly not in the short term).

I can't understand the charges on the SW website

It says: "For a new or newly converted (after 1990) domestic property which is not metered and does not have a rateable value, there is an annual wastewater licence charge of £292.95".

What does that mean. Is that all that I will have to pay? Or is there a charge for water supply, plus all the other charges for surface drainage?

Is there anybody else here with SW who pays on this basis who can explain it to me? It is well above what I am used to paying with a meter and I don't want to be paying more then necessary

TIA

tim

[Nightjar]

I'm not sure Southern Water know how their charges work. I used to have factories on an estate within their area, but supplied by Portsmouth Water, with Entec tanks for sewage and private surface water drainage. That meant that nobody on the estate owed anything to Southern Water, but that did not stop them sending out bills to everyone at apparently random intervals.

Colin Bignell

[Tim Streater]

We're near Canterbury. We get water from SouthEast Water and we just got a meter fitted no charge. Waste water however is dealt with by Southern Water at a flat annual rate not unajacent to what you're being charged.

Normally you can expect to pay for water to come in (metered if you have one, we expect to save a lot having just got one), and for wastewater to go out. At our last house we only paid for water to come in as we had a septic tank.

Is SW also *supplying* you with water?

[Mark]

I think you will find you will be paying, £102.35 + £292.95 = £395.20pa Easy answer ring Southern Water. ;)

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[Bob Eager]

Exactly what I was going to ask. I'm also near Canterbury, and am in the same situation as Tim S.

Where exactly are you, 'tim'?

[tim....]

There are logistical difficulties with fitting to flats and in my case I also have to get the LL's permission, which will likely not be forthcoming!

When I lived "near canterbury" I had a meter and paid both supply and sewerage on a metered basis.

I have checked further since I posted and it seems that I am in the SEW area.

tim

[tim....]

cos until my phone is connected I only have the mobile and I am disinclined to hold for 20 minutes at a utility customer service centre at 45p per minute!

tim

[Tim Streater]

Interesting. Was that from the same outfit? It strikes me that if we're now metered for supply, we ought to be paying our waste water on the same basis, although how they would manage that I don't know.

So I'd imagine you'll be hearing from them too. Have you had any paperwork at all from SEW or SW yet?

[Justin C]

I'm with SW. My annual is about 400, for a flat I'd say that £292 would be what you'd pay in total.

Justin.

[tim....]

The sewerage bill came from Southern Water. Mid Kent Water (as was) supplied them with the meter readings, something which they were supposed to do with the same frequency, but it took them more than 12 months to send me the first one.

This is exactly how it is with my current supplier where SW are also the sewerage company. Though here they do send the sewerage bill to me only a few days after the supply bill arrives.

No.

The agent seems to think that I should do the "chasing", there's no hurry if there isn't a meter that needs to be read

tim

[Tim Streater]

OK thanks. I'll be chasing that up.

I chased up when we moved here about 15 months ago, as I recall. Didn't want to be cut off.

[Bill]

In message , Mark writes

What!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm paying £933 ish for the 2 sets of fat cats (Welsh and Untied Futilities) to live off my pension. Son (bigger older property) is paying a whole lot more.

I get angry every time a bill arrives, and I keep thinking of making a huge tank on the flat garage roof with a small pump for the upstairs loos. We haven't changed to a meter yet because we have a health need for a moderate amount of water. When I asked they said they wouldn't provide a readable by me meter.

What really gets me is the way we are regularly told how they have replaced the old pipes under the roads, so they need us to pay for the investment. I always thought that the water charges were to pay for maintenance of those pipes, plus a bit of chlorine. Their raw material falls out of the sky, after all.

Many, many years ago an uncle down south built a huge tank. He had a "visit" during a hosepipe ban. He was completely deaf, so the family let him deal with the visitors.

[Andy Burns]

Three bed semi (RV of £171), no water meter, paying Severn Trent £156 for supply and £151 for removal (sewerage and surface water).

[Dave Liquorice]

Ouch. =A3271.75 supply only based on rateable value United Utils. Or whatever the people who supply us now are called, I keep seeing North West Water vans at the reservoirs...

I don't think there is anything stopping you getting your own fitted upstream of the street stopcock. Doesn't have to be in hole in the ground could be inside.

[Tim Streater]

Mmmm, doubtless petrol, coal, and gas should be free too. After all their raw material is just lying around underground.

You are paying for the maintenance of those pipes, when they wear out they need replacing. Where else do you think the money might come from? Most of the work needed these days is because bugger all was done while they were nationalised - thus giving the false impression that it was better then because your water rates were only tuppence ha'penny a year.

Whether your £933 is justified is another matter. Seems excessive to me.

Have you calculated what you might pay, with a meter? I figured out that if I use less than 650 litres a day, I'd be better off, which is why we got one put in.

[Bill]

In message , Tim Streater writes

I really don't think I could dig up the petrol myself, or coal, or gas and just use it. Water is different.

I'm not convinced at all that there was all that much more lack of maintenance in the past. What gets me is the way replacing pipes is now trumpeted as "massive investment" rather than the basic job they are paid to do.

And as for sewerage, all I saw as a result of a massive investment programme was that we sailed through a brown area of sea slightly further out.

This has made me think about finding a suitable water meter and installing it myself (thanks Dave for the suggestion). That way we would know what we were doing.

[Steve Firth]

[snip]

If you don't want water supplied to you by Southern Water, write to them and tell them so. Disconnect from their water supply and sewage drainage and make your own arrangements.

I don't pay SW a penny for sewage. I pay them very little for water because we collect our own water and use theirs for drinking water.

If that's what you want, then do it. Don't expect them to provide you a service for free.

[Mark]

This was for a un- metered property without a rateable valuation, but as it turns out the OP is not with Southern Water at all.

I had the bill in yesterday for an un-metered rental property in the SouthernWater area, RV value of £232, band C i think, £430pa total which includes the wastewater charge of only £51. also had the bill in for my own house, water only, metered £91. :)

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[Mark]

Get a meter fitted, if you already have, you have a big big leak!

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[Skipweasel]

So do without their service. There's nothing to stop you going alone.