Useless water firm left me drowning in debt
Mrs E.P.R. writes: I find myself in a desperate situation. On May 30, bailiffs finally evicted my nonpaying tenants. They had trashed the house, but that is the least of my worries. I opened a letter addressed to me but sent to the house I had rented out. It was from debt collectors acting for Welsh Water saying I owe £394. I rang the water company and got the shock of my life. It says they have been writing to me at the rented property – where I have not lived since 2007. As I have not replied, it has taken me to court twice and won judgments. IT HAS taken three months to unravel what has taken place. But the bottom line is that Welsh Water has acted like a back alley mugger, picking on the easiest and weakest target, and failing to use readily available tracing resources. In the end it has landed itself with unnec- essary legal costs that will do nothing to keep down the bills it sends to customers.
You are so angry that while I normally do not name readers, you have asked me to identify you as other Welsh Water customers may then come forward with similar horror stories.
So you are Emma Parsons-Reid from Cardiff and when you got married in 2007 you moved out of your home and into another property a short distance away. You rented out your old home with the tenants responsible for outgoings including water charges.
All went well until 2014 when you wrote to Welsh Water with details of new tenants. They failed to pay the water charges and various other bills and were evicted in May this year.
Other utility companies have either scrapped their bills or are chasing the tenants at their new address but Welsh Water chose to hold you responsible without your knowledge.
Legally, it can do this – but ethically it made a mess of the process. The company says it never received your 2014 letter so it addressed its bills to you at the rented property. It is likely the tenants simply tore them up. When you did not pay these bills Welsh Water sued you, but it sent the court papers to the rented property and you received none of them.
Should Welsh Water have known where you live now? The simple answer is yes.
The Welsh Government operates a scheme called Rent Smart Wales, which includes a public register of landlords. This was launched in 2015 and your details are on it.
The website of Rent Smart Wales even carries an article written by Gareth Williams, a senior official of Welsh Water.
He writes: ‘In order to identify landlords and rental properties, DCWW [Dwr Cymru Welsh Water] uses the public register on Rent Smart Wales’ website.’
Williams even claims: ‘ Once landlords are registered with Rent Smart Wales and DCWW, they will reap the rewards of registration as they will be compliant with the law and won’t incur penalties such as fines or being held responsible for water charges at their rental properties.’
Fine sentiments. But Welsh Water told me its collection staff act on the assumption that anyone who owes them money must be living at the address where the water was consumed. It even hired debt collectors who of course found that you were not there. Nonetheless, Welsh Water told me ‘all evidence’ pointed to the fact that you were living there.
That evidence turned out to be a check with the Land Registry which showed you owned the property. But this is no evidence at all that you lived there and Welsh Water was well aware that it had been rented out since 2007.
The water company has insisted it used its correct procedures to sue you. All I can say is that its procedures are rubbish. You have even offered Welsh Water the new address of the tenants who failed to pay and the company has shown no interest in pursuing them. Why should it, when you are an easier target?
The result of Welsh Water’s behaviour is that you have two debt judgments against your name. You have paid £2,000 to avoid further proceedings and you are paying off a further £30 a month. A separate debt means you also owe the company £283.
When I contacted Welsh Water, it began by claiming it had done nothing wrong. It has now shifted its position. It now says it will write off the £283 and it will pay the legal costs to have the two court judgments set aside so they do not tarnish your credit record for years to come. But it will not budge on the £2,000 you paid or the £30 a month you still pay.
Reluctantly, you have agreed to this as you cannot afford lawyers to fight a big bullying company like Welsh Water. Ironically, the company’s collections boss Leon Hughes, who has been fielding my questions, is also an official of the Civil Court Users Association. He says the association aims to ‘ bring about improvements’ in the way the courts work. I am sure you could give him some suggestions.