Thousands set to get huge water bills

Some people who don't even realise they are Thames Water customers are about to receive huge bills to pay out of the blue - but there is a way to stop it!

Have you paid a water bill to Thames Water recently?

If the answer is no or if you’re not sure your water bill is 100% accurate and up-to-date – including water you may have used many months or even years ago – you need to watch out.

A very, very big water bill could soon be landing on your doorstep.

This is because Thames Water has developed a new system for identifying properties which are not being billed properly for their water – and it is going to start targeting them in six weeks’ time.

The charges can potentially go back six years, which means bills could arrive out of the blue, totalling thousands and thousands of pounds. Failure to pay a could, as usual, lead to court action by the company.

And Thames Water certainly seem determined. The company said in a statement: “We are going to walk every street in our region over the next three months, checking our records against the addresses and doorbells. When we find unbilled residential customers we can and will back-charge them to the date they moved into the property, up to six years ago.”

Don’t panic!

So how do you know whether you have paid in full for the cost of your water usage over the last six years – or not?

Obviously, if you haven’t paid a water bill in the last six years, that’s a sign you could be targeted.

But that's not the only reason. If you live in a new home or a flat which has been converted from an older, larger property, you also stand a good chance of being targeted in the Thames Water region.

Why? Because Thames Water claims that, in many of these cases, it was not informed about creation of these new properties. As a result, separate bills have not been set up for many flats in conversions and water meters have not been installed in newly built homes. In other cases, newly built properties have been connected to the water network without the company being notified.

The good news is, to encourage customers to own up,  the company is offering a ‘bills amnesty’ until 3 March 2011. So until then, people who have not been billed in full for their water usage can admit this is the case, and the cost of their past water usage will be waived. Going forward, of course, they will be billed in full.

The amnesty will not apply to customers whose accounts are already in the normal process of being set up, even if they haven’t yet received their first bill.

Personally, I’m going to give them a ring in the next six weeks. I live in a converted flat and, even though I regularly receive – and pay – a water bill, I have no idea if the original developer set up the connection to the water network correctly or informed Thames Water about the change of use. Perhaps I’m paying too little. There’s even a chance I’m paying too much!

It’s a freephone number (0800 072 3628), and if it turns out I do have anything to pay, it will get written off and I can rest assured everything will be as it should be going forward.

It doesn’t hurt to be on the safe side, does it?

Save money on your water bill

The trouble with water bills is that, unlike energy bills, you can’t simply spend 10 minutes in our comparison engine, find a cheaper tariff and (hey presto!) save £200.

What you can do is follow our eight-step guide to saving money on your water bill. In fact, while you’re there, you might as well find out how to cut your mobile phone bill, reduce your communications bill, lower your TV bill and cut your insurance spend.

Still here when I’ve given you so many more better places to go? What are you waiting for? Start saving money on your bills today!

More: Get a cheaper energy tariff  | This scam secretly steals your bank details  | Credit cards that bend the rules