Water bill

[matt_london]

<PRE>When I bought my house in June 2002 I was told buy the vendor that the water was free as the M.O.D. paid for it because it was an old army garrison house (The vendor had actually bought it off MOD a couple of years before). Today I have received a bill for water going back to the date when the MOD sold the house off. This is obviously very high. I wondered if they are allowed to do this after such a long period? </PRE>

[lady_p_gold]

Well it seems unlikely the water would be free and your solicitor should have investigated this at the time of the sale I would have thought. I would go back to that solicitor assuming you had one and ask about this. I am also assuming there is no water meter. The only thing I can thing of is for you to negotiate with the water company and explain the situation and ask if they would consider reducing the bill or allowing you to pay it spread out over time. Someone somewhere did not do their job properly ... there is a form when you buy and sell that says 'is it connected to the mains water supply' etc. and it would be interesting to see what your vendor put there. Depending on the outcome of this you might find your solicitor was negligent but of course one would need more details.

[themas]

You should be able to get the water company to accept that you have no liability for the period before you bought the house, by giving them evidence of the purchase date etc. The rest of it you will have to pay unless you can claim against your solicitor for negligence (follow advice in previous post). Some water companies do seem to be very bad at billing where houses have changed hands so you should be able to get them to agree payments over a period as it is unreasonable for them to expect full payment immediately if you haven't bothered to invoice you for 3+ years.

[buildersmate]

On MOD establishments, normally the water is metered at the boundary fence. Married quarters accommodation is normally off-base (a few are not) and would be connected independently of the base to the water supply. When a serviceperson occupied the house the MOD would be typically picked up the bill - whether metered or unmetered. But there still would have been a water meter account number for the house.

About 10 years ago the MOD sold all its married quarters accommodation in England and Wales to the private equity company Nomura, leasing back the accommodation until they no longer required it. At that point the houses are sold by Nomura - often to servicepersonnel for their own private occupation. It is very likely the vendor bought it from Nomura, not the MOD and the length of time that this situation has been going on (10 years, not 3) makes it even more peculiar.

You could try talking to Nomura.

[buildersmate]

The Nomura company that manages and sells the homes is called Annington Homes.

[stanleyman]

We bought an Annington refurbished ex MOD home 18 months ago. The water is currently supplied by the MOD borehole and returns to the MOD sewage plant. There are future plans to connect us to the public system. We have to pay a water and sewage charge based on current public prices to the management company and that in turn goes to the MOD. All our estate, roads, pipes, lights etc. are private and maintained by us.

This should have been dealt with when your home was originally sold and you may have a complaint against your solicitor for missing it but you must have known you don't get something for nothing. The MOD or water company can only charge you for what you have used since you moved in. This is probably an oversight and worth you negotiating a reduced rate and time to pay in the unusually circumstances. You could argue there is no contract as you did not know who was supplying it.

[podmm]

Water co's are allowed to claim back 6 years worth of back revenue, but as someone pointed out they will only charge you from the date of occupation as long as you have written proof from your solicitor.