English Water
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- ********
When renting a flat in England, are you responsible for the water bills, or is it your landlord that pays? (along with building rates etc..)
Never had to pay in Scotland, which makes sense as we have fucking loads of the stuff. Just wondering what the deal is down here in London.
- rasko40
varies, I have had to pay sometimes, and sometimes not. Also, some boroughs are metered, some are not.
works out just over £100 a year I think..
- ********0
Cheers Rasko, so 150 notes for 4 months would be a little steep then?
- rasko40
just for water?
I'd say that was fucking scandalous
- normal0
You pay.
But Thames water is a joke. I would recommend registering with them under a different name. They will never come round and shut off your supply and they will only send you or your nom de plume a bill every once in a while.
No pestering, nothing and thankfully for the information protection act they can't get your name from other utilities in order to corroborate their database as it's illegal to make that information available.
Or you could just be honest and pay your bill it's up to you. Welcome to dodgy london.
- rasko40
yeah thats true, they lost our details somehow, now we just get letters occasionally saying 'we have no record of account holders at this address, please contact us blah blah'
- yeah shuuure I will...
- ********0
Depends on the landlord.
Same with council tax - which is also easy to dodge.
- normal0
Exactly and thanks to the human rights act they can't deprive a residence of water, electricity, or gas. But stick to the water dodge, the electricity and gas people are a little bit more tenacious on these issues.
- ********0
Yeah, already fucked with the council tax - miss one payment and the fuckers send me a letter giving me 10 days to pay the full amount for the year, and on top of that charge me £75 court costs for something that hasn't been anywhere near a court. Hackney Council = A shower of cheeky bastards.
Anyway, moving soon so will probably just ignore the water bill - post is just so unreliable these days.
- normal0
Council tax is a joke here in Hackney. They've only got something like 72% penetration. And they're bankrupt with one phone line to handle all council tax inquiries. Most services in Hackney are the same. None of them have automated answering services or any sort of queing system. It's practically third world at best second.
- rasko40
I've been in my current place since last october, still haven't paid or been billed for electricity or gas... heeehheee...
got stung on the council tax tho
- rasko40
true indeed, when I lived in Hackney I never paid council tax, they gave me a court hearing because I owed 2 years (over £2000) so I just tore it up and moved out.
- normal0
Yeah, see our building in hackney is a bit of an old factory recent rennovation thing. We've got the same Post Code for like the entire neighborhood which plays havoc with your credit but also confuses any sort of utility and the council. They don't even know what's going on. And thankfully my landlord is a bit dodgy but in a good way and would pretty much tell the council that it was vacant for years if they ever started snooping.
- ********0
Thats a bit handy Normal - our landlord is far to straight for any kind of dodge the council skams - In fact he had given my name to the gas, leccy and council lot before I'd even moved in.
Must get myself a proper slum landlord next time.
- normal0
Well that sucks. At least you'll get away with the water.
I highly recommend hasidic jewish landlords. Surprisingly dodgy given the wardrobe. But very nice in general.
- ********0
' I highly recommend hasidic jewish landlords. Surprisingly dodgy given the wardrobe. But very nice in general.'
Ha haha
- ********0
I love those jewish haircuts. If my name was Quentin I'd arm them with big fucking guns and make them do drive-bys in minis...
- normal0
Ahh moth hasidics would never drive a mini-cooper as it's built by BMW the same people who built the mesherscmitts (sp?) during WWII. Volvos from Sweden all the way... though I did see a hasidic in a BMW recently and was astonished. But then again we were watching a movie the other night with the side door open as it was hot and one wandered in asking how to get upstairs as he was under the impression that it was a bar. I also keep seeing one at On The Rocks off Kingsland Rd every thursday night. Apparently Sean Mclusky is teaching him how to play drums...
There are more strange hasidic stories in my vaults but i'll leave you with those little red herrings for now.
- throwback0
I rent in an area full of jews AND water. And I only have to pay for one of these things...
- _salisae_0
this conversation is totally fascinating. so completely different than the situation in the states.
eye opening.
- slag_you_off0
Im renting out my flat in London while im away...
I supply water, fridge, furniture, dishwasher, pay the management charge and so on.
In Sydney, you get nothing. I mean nothing, carpet and a tumble dryer for some reason