Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Dad hit with £3k bill after water leak outside Airbnb
A man has endured a sevenmonth battle over an “unfair” water bill of more than £3,200 following an undetected leak outside his Airbnb rental home. Ian Shearer, from Canterbury, only discovered water was pouring out of a meter close to the property and into a drain as he went to check the reading following the jawdropping pay demand.
The teacher’s direct debit to Business Stream - which supplies the house in Victoria Street, Whitstable - had jumped from £50 to £1,800 after the utility company recorded an extraordinarily high usage. Mr Shearer tried to get in touch with the company to advise them of the leak last July, but for weeks heard nothing back as his bill rose to £3,265.
The teacher insisted the charges should not be his to pay, as the leak was not his fault and did not occur on his property.
But he told the Gazette he felt the water company had him “over a barrel” as he began receiving demanding texts and calls from a debt collection agency.
“They had read the meter and it was a huge reading so I went and checked it,” the 57-year-old said earlier this week. “I opened the drain and I could just see the water was seeping up the kerb and into the road.
“I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. I never missed a bill and now I’m hit with owing thousands of pounds. “But I feel like I have no other option but to pay the bill. It feels like they’ve got me over a barrel.”
Mr Shearer says since the first shocking bill, the struggle to communicate with Business Stream has weighed heavily on his mental health.
But intervention by this paper has meant the long-running struggle may finally be coming to an end as the firm has agreed to substantially credit Mr Shearer’s account. But in the intervening period the uncertainty around the situation has forced him to cancel holiday plans and a trip to visit his sick mother because he was unsure if he would be able to afford travel tickets. “My wife and I have been incredibly stressed - it’s made me sick,” continued the dad-oftwo.
“At Christmas I was going to stay with my mum, who’s got Alzheimer's, but I couldn’t justify buying the ticket when the debt agency were saying that I could get additional charges. “It just makes you feel so helpless.”
In February Business Stream - a subsidiary of Scottish Water - agreed to credit Mr Shearer a £987.95 ‘leak allowance’, but warned then that the case was closed as no further offer would be made.
But after the Gazette pressed the firm on why Mr Shearer was being punished for a leak that was not his fault, a customer service representative informed him that an additional credit “in the region of £1,600” would be applied to his account.
Business Stream customer services director Jo Mayes said: “The reason for the initial high bill was due to a leak at the water meter, located beyond the boundary of Mr Shearer’s premises.
“South East Water, who are the wholesale provider of water, had issues gaining access due to the location of the meter and they were eventually required to obtain a road closure permit in order to gain access to fix the leak. “Once the leak was fixed, we requested a water leak allowance from South East Water, which was received in full and applied to Mr Shearer’s account following our appeal on his behalf. In this particular case, the customer has a different wholesaler for their waste water services, and this wasn’t covered by the initial leak allowance request.
“A leak allowance for the waste water has now been agreed by the wholesaler, Southern Water, and we’ve been in touch with Mr Shearer to apologise for the delays experienced and to reassure him that his account will be amended to reflect this additional credit as quickly as possible.”