Water bill scandal

Water bill scandal

www.express.co.uk

HOME owners are being rewarded for cutting water use with inflation-busting rises in their bills.

One water firm is proposing a 10.2 per cent increase in costs from April.


It blames “reduced demand for water from metered customers” during the droughts and heavy rainfall of the past four years which resulted in less income.


Another group in drought-prone southern England also admitted revenues have dipped because customers are using water wisely.

(visit the link for the full news article)

“Customers seem damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

Too damn right as well... This is an outrage..

They ask us to make cutbacks, they impose hose pipe bans.. we start to save, they begin to lose and now want us to pay more...

NO . a big fat NO .. right in their faces.



www.express.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Extralien


You are really painting the UK as a place no one should want to live today. This is pretty crazy.

The water companies have experienced rapid rise in chemical costs for the chemicals used to treat water. Chances are, their utility costs have risen also from electric rate hikes. These costs need to be spread among their customers.

There is a down side to conserving water, it cost more per unit, so the cost again has to be passed to the customer. As a side note, expect sewer rates to increase as these are usually based on water consumption. Cities will raise taxes to offset losses from a drop in sewer tax.

Water rates are either progressive or regressive. A progressive rate is the water will get cheaper the more you use. This is for large industrial customers and businesses like car washes or laundromats. Regressive is the opposite, the water will get more expensive the more you use. This rate is usually place on residential services to help encourage conservation.

You might want to ask about the rate structure.

I'd just say, expect more rate hikes from the other utilities.

reply to post by Karlhungis



Sometimes other countries need to be highlighted just as much as everywhere else..

Generally, the news affects the worlds populace, so ATS is a great medium for sharing the worlds news with the world, rather than let it all boil in one pot.

And when it comes to water, this is a basic human necesity.. not a right..but a need.. a must have..no arguments on it..

so for prices t go up on something we all desperately need just points out how sick this entire society is when it comes to control..

it's plain daft IMO. We should be way beyond arguing the costs of needs.. Wants are different things.. but needs are essential for our survival.

This guy got a $9700 water bill, then another $1700 bill after he paid the first, then the company shut his water off for "non payment".
Talk about a scam.

OGDEN, Utah – A Utah homeowner was billed for 1.4 million gallons of water for part of last winter, and even though Rick Baur disputes it, he paid the bill. Advertisement "I was blown away," said Baur, an Ogden resident who made good on the $9,700 bill in August after the city shut off his service for nonpayment. "It's enough to buy a used car." That much water, the Standard-Examiner calculated, is enough to fill a swimming pool at Ben Lomond High School seven times - or a typical home pool 70 times. The bill was for Dec. 19 to April 4, typically when residential water consumption is at its lowest of the year. Baur said he irrigates only about a third of his 2-acre parcel and could never use that much water in any season. What's more, he and his wife didn't use any water at home from mid-December to early January because they were vacationing in the Virgin Islands. "Something strange is going on," said Craig Frisbee, the city's water utility manager, who said he might issue Baur a hardship credit but nonetheless defended the billing. "When water goes through a meter, they (customers) are obligated to pay for that."

edit: linky to site. citizen-times.com...

[edit on 1-10-2008 by Snift]

Originally posted by hinky
The water companies have experienced rapid rise in chemical costs for the chemicals used to treat water. Chances are, their utility costs have risen also from electric rate hikes. These costs need to be spread among their customers.

There is a down side to conserving water, it cost more per unit, so the cost again has to be passed to the customer. As a side note, expect sewer rates to increase as these are usually based on water consumption. Cities will raise taxes to offset losses from a drop in sewer tax.

Water rates are either progressive or regressive. A progressive rate is the water will get cheaper the more you use. This is for large industrial customers and businesses like car washes or laundromats. Regressive is the opposite, the water will get more expensive the more you use. This rate is usually place on residential services to help encourage conservation.

You might want to ask about the rate structure.

I know about the rate structure in England; water bills are one of my biggest bugbears. I live alone in a small rented property which was built in 1963 many years before meters were installed by default. The actual nature of the property, flats, means that meters cannot be installed and therefore the property is subject to rateable value. Rateable value was actually set in 1974 and is based on the rentable worth of a property as well as size of the property in 1974.

Whereas other rateable values have been reviewed over the years (poll tax/community charge/council tax and so on) this hasn't been reviewed, whereas metering charges are reviewed. This means a property built only a few years before the rateable worth was set was seen as very desirable as it came with 'all mod cons' and was 'state of the art' during a time when the bulk of British properties were unmodernised Victorian buildings.

Over the last 40 years, most 60s builds have aged fairly badly, whereas older similar-sized properties, such as the many hundreds of thousands of terraced properties have been much modernised, have better amenities and are worth far more as properties. Yet, because these buildings were seen as old and 'past it' in 1974, their rateable value is very low and being Victorian they are exempt from metering.

At present, I pay £416 a year for inclusive water rates. I live alone, I have no access to garden or area that needs to be watered and I don't even have a washing machine. Yet, I know people living in larger properties as couples or families, with small gardens, washing machines who pay only a third of what I pay for my water.

Water in Britain is a #ing scam. How much of a scam?

It's wiki, but it's verifiable.
en.wikipedia.org...

The state allowed our water company to raise rates 42% this year. My bills went from about $50 a month to $71 per month. In one month.