What can I do? Heating system leak made my water bill £1000 higher. Landlord and property management refused to help.
Posted by HellWing61@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 19 comments
Hey everyone,
I really need some advice because I feel completely stuck in a ridiculous situation.
I rent a flat in the UK where the heating system is managed by Switch2. A while ago, a pipe connected to their system burst inside our unit, it wasn’t anything we did, it was clearly part of their setup.
Because of that leak, our water usage went through the roof, and we ended up with a £1000 increase on our water bill from the main water company.
We reported it straight away to our letting agent and property management, but both of them keep saying, “It’s between you and Switch2 , not our responsibility.”
Switch2 admitted it was their system’s fault, but they’re only offering £350 compensation, which doesn’t even cover half of the extra water charges.
What should we do now? We genuinely don’t have spare money to cover such a huge bill for something that wasn’t even our fault.
Thimerion@reddit
£800 worth of water is a hell of a lot of water, my more immediate concern would be where it's all gone and what damage it's caused.
HellWing61@reddit (OP)
No other damage caused. It was the pipe inside boiler and we found it leak earlier.
Thimerion@reddit
I dont understand how a leak inside the boiler could have caused an £800 water bill, thats olymic swimming pools volumes of water.
HellWing61@reddit (OP)
Neither do I🤷🏼♀️ it’s kind of pre charge? The water company said we use too much water, so next month we have to paid higher fee.
BigB0ner6969@reddit
They charging you based on estimate most likely. Call them.
Thimerion@reddit
Have they provided you with a bill showing your meter readings? If so have you checked the reading on the bill is correct?
HellWing61@reddit (OP)
Additional explanation:
Switch2 has a contract with the whole building, so I have no right to change the supplier and I don’t have any direct contract with them.
If there’s a heating issue, we need approval from property management before Switch2 engineers can come to fix it.
What’s really tricky here is that I’m just a tenant. When I found the leak, I reported it to property management so they could arrange Switch2 to repair it and contact the water company to check for leaks. I’ve already done everything I could.
But now they want me to pay the extra water bill?
We’ve been negotiating with Switch2 for a while, and their final offer was £350 if we replied before September 30. They said if we don’t accept it, we’ll get NOTHING. So for now, we can only take the £350.
iamdadmin@reddit
Make it clear that you only accept the £350 without prejudice and in no uncertain terms you do NOT give up any right to pursue the matter fully and ensure that the correct party is responsible for the matter because it’s not you.
Capital-Alfalfa9384@reddit
We recently had an unground water leak, we were losing 1000 ltrs a day according to the meter. As the leak was on my property, it was my responsibility to get it sorted. The company said our mains supply line was perished and they could fix it but best have a new mains put in. £2500 later it is now sorted 70ft from meter to house. We contacted welsh water and they have written off what we were losing (they looked at our previous 5 yrs usage) and even gave us £300 towards the installation of the new mains.
Kamikaze-X@reddit
No way that is tall from your boiler leak
Bloke next door to me had the main supply under his house leak and it was going for about a month - it left the end of his garden under a couple of inches of water and that came to £1200
They charged him £4k to blow a new mains supply under his house.
Ok_Cow_3431@reddit
do you have any contents insurance? It might provide cover for loss of metered water/oil. Handy in this case as you can let them look after the fight
technonotice@reddit
Check if the water company has a leak allowance scheme. You can get the bill refunded if you can provide information showing that the leak was fixed promptly.
I used Thames Water's recently and they fully refunded me. You need to collect meter readings over the next two weeks to show the normal usage. Thames Water requires that you pay the bills, then they issue a credit on your account that you can then request be paid back to you.
So the important thing is not to stop paying the large bills while you're waiting for the refund, unfortunately. Perhaps somebody can help you out in the short term?
HellWing61@reddit (OP)
I use Affinity Water, they do have leakage allowance. However, they list out they may not take the submission if the leak happens in our house/flat.
Though I've done the leakage allowance and see if it'll be work or not.
Different_Pain5781@reddit
That really sucks. Since Switch2 admitted fault you should ask for full reimbursement and get tenants advice involved.
Sea-Still5427@reddit
Context the water company and then Ofwat, the regulator, but I think the landlord's buildings insurance should cover this if the supplier doesn't as it's part of the fittings, not something you installed.
Could also send to a consumer champion like Martin Lewis.
HellWing61@reddit (OP)
The heating system supplier is a contractor with whole building. It’s not my supplier and I can’t even change it.
Sea-Still5427@reddit
They're both passing the buck IMO.
geeered@reddit
r/LegalAdviceUK is the place to ask I think.
Do you pay Switch2 for the heating directly? Do you have a contract with Switch2? If so, it would seem reasonable that you have to deal with them. If you don't and it's your landlord, it would seem like you'd deal with them. But absolutely 'NAL' for me.
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