MyBB'ers in the United Kingdom & Ireland

Had major water issues for the last couple of weeks. Some 3rd party broke a water main, flooded a school's field, and caused 5 postcodes to be without water. Thames Water worked round the clock to get it restored, but everyone still had limited pressure for most days - or it would cut out completely. Turns out there was more fixing to do. People on the neighbourhood WA group mentioned that TW will intentionally turn the water back on, even if it's a trickle, because anything over 12 hours and they have to compensate financially. To be fair, they also provided water trucks and stations, and even delivered water to a couple of the elderly households in the street.

But, that's where the good will ends. We moved out of our old place on 11 May this year. A few weeks before, I contacted TW to let them know, and to set up the account for the new place. In the process, they closed the old account, and I paid the few quid that was outstanding. Zero balance, account closed, easy. Until about a week ago, I see an envelope from TW on the carpet by the front door. Big redirected mail sticker on it, because I'd set that up before we moved (but hardly got anything...) so assume it's for me because all bills are in my name. Open it, and it's addressed to my wife... it's a demand letter saying she owes £323.

Rang the wife, who had no knowledge of it, and had never opened the account. Contacted TW straight away. Go through the dates with my old and new account numbers. They confirm that the old account was paid off and closed when we moved, and new account is open and that I have no other accounts in my name. Then ask them about the random account number with an outstanding balance. They say, yes, it's active. I say it's an account that my wife never opened. They ask whether or not I have my wife's permission to discuss the account, to which I say yes (no other checks performed lol). I ask when the account was opened: 24 August. Four months after we moved out. I ask how the heck they can just randomly open an account like that? Apparently, they can, and they do. If no-one has opened an account at a property, and water is being used, they just check the electoral register for the person with the best credit record and open an account in their name: not even the open register - they have access to the full one because they're a creditor. I'd already said I no longer lived there, so the next on the list was my wife. And it's not hearsay - it's what the TW agent told me.

So, rang the wife back, and told her what they said she should do: just send an mail with proof of address for the new place, and they'd take it off her name and close the account. I followed up by phoning our old estate agents, and asking if anyone was living there, to which they cheerfully replied "yes!" - I then politely asked them to inform their new tenants that they need to open an account with TW so that my wife or some other random person doesn't get billed for their usage. A week or so later, and my wife just got confirmation that the debt has been cleared off her name and the account has been closed.

Thing is, I'm pretty on the ball when it comes to admin, and had already advised Kingston that we were leaving the borough weeks before we even moved out, and had already registered both of us at the new address. Guess my exorbitant council tax wasn't used to hire competent staff?

TL;DR: Thames Water can legally open an account in your name and charge you if you're still on the electoral register at a previous address.
 
killerbyte said:
I am sharing this advice in this thread because I think its far more useful to those of us in the UK than to those in SA... when shopping online go to your favourite AI tool and ask it to find you some discount codes for that site. Majority of the time it will find you good codes.
I got a 25% discount code for Charles Tyrwhitt which I then combined with a visit to the outlet store in Bicester (who gives you a base 10% discount when you let them place the order on their website). I got £99 off this coat. It arrives tomorrow.
I bought my dad a Rotary watch for Christmas and got a 20% discount code for it (saved me £70).
Click to expand...
Solid advice.

Also, since not having Ebucks I live on https://www.hotukdeals.com/
 
The Voice said:
Had major water issues for the last couple of weeks. Some 3rd party broke a water main, flooded a school's field, and caused 5 postcodes to be without water. Thames Water worked round the clock to get it restored, but everyone still had limited pressure for most days - or it would cut out completely. Turns out there was more fixing to do. People on the neighbourhood WA group mentioned that TW will intentionally turn the water back on, even if it's a trickle, because anything over 12 hours and they have to compensate financially. To be fair, they also provided water trucks and stations, and even delivered water to a couple of the elderly households in the street.

But, that's where the good will ends. We moved out of our old place on 11 May this year. A few weeks before, I contacted TW to let them know, and to set up the account for the new place. In the process, they closed the old account, and I paid the few quid that was outstanding. Zero balance, account closed, easy. Until about a week ago, I see an envelope from TW on the carpet by the front door. Big redirected mail sticker on it, because I'd set that up before we moved (but hardly got anything...) so assume it's for me because all bills are in my name. Open it, and it's addressed to my wife... it's a demand letter saying she owes £323.

Rang the wife, who had no knowledge of it, and had never opened the account. Contacted TW straight away. Go through the dates with my old and new account numbers. They confirm that the old account was paid off and closed when we moved, and new account is open and that I have no other accounts in my name. Then ask them about the random account number with an outstanding balance. They say, yes, it's active. I say it's an account that my wife never opened. They ask whether or not I have my wife's permission to discuss the account, to which I say yes (no other checks performed lol). I ask when the account was opened: 24 August. Four months after we moved out. I ask how the heck they can just randomly open an account like that? Apparently, they can, and they do. If no-one has opened an account at a property, and water is being used, they just check the electoral register for the person with the best credit record and open an account in their name: not even the open register - they have access to the full one because they're a creditor. I'd already said I no longer lived there, so the next on the list was my wife. And it's not hearsay - it's what the TW agent told me.

So, rang the wife back, and told her what they said she should do: just send an mail with proof of address for the new place, and they'd take it off her name and close the account. I followed up by phoning our old estate agents, and asking if anyone was living there, to which they cheerfully replied "yes!" - I then politely asked them to inform their new tenants that they need to open an account with TW so that my wife or some other random person doesn't get billed for their usage. A week or so later, and my wife just got confirmation that the debt has been cleared off her name and the account has been closed.

Thing is, I'm pretty on the ball when it comes to admin, and had already advised Kingston that we were leaving the borough weeks before we even moved out, and had already registered both of us at the new address. Guess my exorbitant council tax wasn't used to hire competent staff?

TL;DR: Thames Water can legally open an account in your name and charge you if you're still on the electoral register at a previous address.
Click to expand...
Am I reading this correctly, the new tenants did not register for a water supplier?
 
The Voice said:
Had major water issues for the last couple of weeks. Some 3rd party broke a water main, flooded a school's field, and caused 5 postcodes to be without water. Thames Water worked round the clock to get it restored, but everyone still had limited pressure for most days - or it would cut out completely. Turns out there was more fixing to do. People on the neighbourhood WA group mentioned that TW will intentionally turn the water back on, even if it's a trickle, because anything over 12 hours and they have to compensate financially. To be fair, they also provided water trucks and stations, and even delivered water to a couple of the elderly households in the street.

But, that's where the good will ends. We moved out of our old place on 11 May this year. A few weeks before, I contacted TW to let them know, and to set up the account for the new place. In the process, they closed the old account, and I paid the few quid that was outstanding. Zero balance, account closed, easy. Until about a week ago, I see an envelope from TW on the carpet by the front door. Big redirected mail sticker on it, because I'd set that up before we moved (but hardly got anything...) so assume it's for me because all bills are in my name. Open it, and it's addressed to my wife... it's a demand letter saying she owes £323.

Rang the wife, who had no knowledge of it, and had never opened the account. Contacted TW straight away. Go through the dates with my old and new account numbers. They confirm that the old account was paid off and closed when we moved, and new account is open and that I have no other accounts in my name. Then ask them about the random account number with an outstanding balance. They say, yes, it's active. I say it's an account that my wife never opened. They ask whether or not I have my wife's permission to discuss the account, to which I say yes (no other checks performed lol). I ask when the account was opened: 24 August. Four months after we moved out. I ask how the heck they can just randomly open an account like that? Apparently, they can, and they do. If no-one has opened an account at a property, and water is being used, they just check the electoral register for the person with the best credit record and open an account in their name: not even the open register - they have access to the full one because they're a creditor. I'd already said I no longer lived there, so the next on the list was my wife. And it's not hearsay - it's what the TW agent told me.

So, rang the wife back, and told her what they said she should do: just send an mail with proof of address for the new place, and they'd take it off her name and close the account. I followed up by phoning our old estate agents, and asking if anyone was living there, to which they cheerfully replied "yes!" - I then politely asked them to inform their new tenants that they need to open an account with TW so that my wife or some other random person doesn't get billed for their usage. A week or so later, and my wife just got confirmation that the debt has been cleared off her name and the account has been closed.

Thing is, I'm pretty on the ball when it comes to admin, and had already advised Kingston that we were leaving the borough weeks before we even moved out, and had already registered both of us at the new address. Guess my exorbitant council tax wasn't used to hire competent staff?

TL;DR: Thames Water can legally open an account in your name and charge you if you're still on the electoral register at a previous address.
Click to expand...
urg, sounds like a real ball ache.

I had a water leak close to my water meter recently and all I can say is Affinity water SUCKS.

Only thing that saved me was the £1pm introductory offer (1st 12 months) for leaky pipes. Ended up only having to pay £30 excess
 
The Voice said:
Yeah, that's correct. They just turned on the taps, there was water, so didn't bother.
Click to expand...

Before I moved into my current place four years ago, I made arrangements to put all the utilities into my name as per the occupation date.

Electricity and gas went smoothly, but I only realised months later that the water account hadn't been moved. I wasn't sure how often I was being billed and wasn't looking out for water bills, so didn't even think about it until much later.
 
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