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Case ref:201401201
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Date:February 2016
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Body:Business Stream
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Sector:Water
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Outcome:Not upheld, action taken by body to remedy, no recommendations
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Subject:charging method / calculation
Summary
Ms C ran a business and paid for her water and waste water services through Business Stream. She felt that her water bills were disproportionately high and asked Business Stream to investigate. Scottish Water were asked to attend and their engineers concluded that Ms C's water meter was on pipework that was shared with two neighbouring residential properties. She was, therefore, being charged for water used by those properties. Ms C asked for the meter to be moved so that it only served her property, but this was refused.
During our investigation further site visits were carried out. These ultimately established that the meter was not on a shared pipe and that it was correctly recording water used in Ms C's property. A faulty toilet was identified which had caused a spike in her water usage. Business Stream agreed to refund the cost of the spiked usage in recognition of the fact that Ms C had been mistakenly informed that the problem lay elsewhere. We found this to be reasonable in the circumstances.