My water is shut off

[Pingfah]

I think it is illegal for them to cut your water supply off in the UK, regardless of whether you have paid your bill or not.

 

[Deckerd]

I think it is illegal for them to cut your water supply off in the UK, regardless of whether you have paid your bill or not.

Correct. It's also illegal to disconnect the electricity if the property has children resident, which is why so many low income families have prepaid meters, which neatly gets round the problem. The bailiffs come in and take the telly away which is far crueller.

 

[Jadzia]

I think it is illegal for them to cut your water supply off in the UK, regardless of whether you have paid your bill or not.

It wouldn't be possible in my house, because we have a communal water main, where the water that comes into my pipes feeds through to my neighbour, and so on to the next few houses. Water metering isn't possible for the same reason.

 

[RoJoHen]

I work for a water/utility agency. This is what those field guys do when someone "forgets" to pay their water bill. Your landlord should've received several notices before your water was shut off. We do have a 24-hour emergency line for the public to reach even after hours.

I know what should have happened, but it didn't happen. And yeah, the company did have a 24-hour emergency number. It's just the nobody answered when I dialed it.

Eventually, somebody did answer, and he told me, "Yeah, you're pretty much screwed until somebody pays this bill." Very professional.

 

[ed629]

That happens to me every 3-4 months, the city department are still billing the builder, so when I pay the bill it goes to my account (under my name and address) but since the builder is still on the account (under his name and account number, but his business address and account number at the water departmen) it's reported as nonpayment. I've gone there several times to straighten it out, but he's never cancelled his account at with the city. He's the only one that can do that. Their system is also pretty antiquated, on a computer that each payment is netered manually, then they call the water department on who to shut off.

So yeah, that is really fucking stupid. Do I go throught that every few months.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So do you have your water back yet, Rojo?

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I have no idea why, but my water is shut off.

In conjunction with your recent thread on peeing lots overnight, I want to say that God does indeed have a sense of humour.

She does indeed.

 

[RobertVA]

(snip)
My landlord is a good guy, and neither of us received a bill, so I don't blame him.
(snip)

There's this thing called a calender. They even have ones for computers that can be set up to notify him that a payment is due soon when he logs onto his computer. If the water department there works at all like the one here, the due dates are pretty predictable long in advance. A visit to the payment counter or even a phone call could probably determine what the current balance is.

Now they the water department will probably want a couple of dozen dollars extra to reconnect the service. Between wages and the cost to acquire and operate the vehicle the two trips to disconnect and reconnect the account has cost them more than normal this month.

In some places allowing a utility to be disconnected like that would be considered a breach of the lease/rental agreement and a tenant could use it as an excuse to move early without liability for the remaining monthly payments. Make sure you check with a tenant advocacy group or lawyer to discover what steps you would have to take to document the problem. It would probably be a good idea to mail a polite complaint to the landlord (certified with delivery receipt required) and keep a copy for your records.

That guy could really get into trouble if he borrowed money from a company that preferred to issue a payment book or similar package of payment slips for the entire loan period.

 

[RoJoHen]

(snip)
My landlord is a good guy, and neither of us received a bill, so I don't blame him.
(snip)

There's this thing called a calender. They even have ones for computers that can be set up to notify him that a payment is due soon when he logs onto his computer. If the water department there works at all like the one here, the due dates are pretty predictable long in advance. A visit to the payment counter or even a phone call could probably determine what the current balance is.

Now they the water department will probably want a couple of dozen dollars extra to reconnect the service. Between wages and the cost to acquire and operate the vehicle the two trips to disconnect and reconnect the account has cost them more than normal this month.

In some places allowing a utility to be disconnected like that would be considered a breach of the lease/rental agreement and a tenant could use it as an excuse to move early without liability for the remaining monthly payments.

That guy could really get into trouble if he borrowed money from a company that preferred to issue a payment book or similar package of payment slips for the entire loan period.

You are over-estimated how upset I get about things. My landlord is a good guy; he's just a little flakey. He got back to me right away after I left him a message and woke up extra early this morning to pay the bill. It was $70. I predict that water will be back on by the time I get home from work today. It was certainly a major inconvenience, but I'm not going to get angry about it. I know he didn't mean for it to happen.

What I don't understand is why neither of us was given any kind of advanced warning from the water department. Shouldn't they have posted something on my door?

 

[Avalon]

^^^ That's how it works here. A warning letter first, then a doorhanger saying that the water will be shut off the next day or so. I wonder if maybe your landlord got them but just didn't notice what they were (you said he's a little flakey)?

 

[RoJoHen]

Anything is possible. My landlord lives a half hour away, so I really don't know.

 

[Finn]

What I don't understand is why neither of us was given any kind of advanced warning from the water department. Shouldn't they have posted something on my door?

Is it possible the landlord has other addresses where the notices were somehow mailed to instead of his primary mailing address?

The post by shameless comes to mind

I know of a property owner who maintains an apartment building in DC but lives in Texas.

 

[RoJoHen]

My landlord owns two homes -- his house and my house. He bought his current house 3 months ago, and I moved into his old house. He is a first-time landlord.

So no, I don't think there is another address where it could have been sent.

 

[Holdfast]

Seriously - I think Holdfast made a deal with god.

God's easy to deal with; his debt-collectors are a bunch of pansies. Every time he sends Paul round, I just bum a loan off of Peter. Mike may have a nice line in flaming swords, but his full-time job as bouncer at Club Eden means he never gets sent out to collect. And at the end of the day, if God does catch up with you, you just need to say sorry, and he wipes the slate clean for you to start all over again.

The Devil on the other hand, that guy doesn't fuck around.

 

[RoJoHen]

Water is still off. My landlord claims that he paid the bill this morning, but the water department claims that the bill is still delinquent, so they refuse to turn it on. The water guy is currently calling his boss to find out what he can do for me.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ @ Holdfast.

That last line needs to be a sig.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Water is still off. My landlord claims that he paid the bill this morning, but the water department claims that the bill is still delinquent, so they refuse to turn it on. The water guy is currently calling his boss to find out what he can do for me.

Jesus. What a circlefuck this is turning out to be!

Shoot...at this rate, the problem of whether or not to shave your beard this summer will soon become a non-issue.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, my landlord is pissed. This won't be getting resolved until tomorrow morning at the earliest. Right now it's looking like whoever took my landlord's money neglected to post the payment, so it looks like it wasn't made, even though my landlord has a receipt. Apparently there's nothing to be done until the finance office opens at 8am.

My landlord did offer to let us stay at his house tonight.

 

[Captain Ice]

LOL at Holdfast. That last line does need to be a sig...

 

[RoJoHen]

I have water again!