I turned up at the wood to find four letters from a utility company, based in Preston, demanding I pay their various “overdue” invoices.
Upon investigation, they are the “Licensed Provider” for Scottish Water (whatever that means).
After raising an official “dispute”, long story short is that an engineer from Scottish Water will visit the hut to staisfy themselves that there is no water supply. The whole system seems bizzare, having to “prove” that something doesn’t exist, to the very authority that installs such services. But hey ho, this is the efficient way we do things nowadays.
Has anyone else had such a visit to their hut? What is involved? Do the demands for payment stop once the authorities are satisfied there’s no water supply? Do they try to charge for the rainwater falling off my roof into the dirt?
Utterly bizarre. Although having spent 2 hours on the phone to Vodafone today while they demanded my account details before they would talk to me about the fact that they haven’t sent me my account details nothing much surprises me about utility companies any more.
I’m sure there were posts on this Hub from another member who’s had such a visit (the Frugaldom founder?) but now I can’t find them, seem to have vanished.
Anyway, I’ll report back after the engineer’s visit, in case it’s of use to other hut owners.
I’m dealing with three different companies over this matter; Pure Utilities, BAU Metering and Scottish Water. Each of which claims “It’s just the system…nothing we can do”. A full working day of my time wasted so far (I’m self employed) just to establish that I am not liable for any of their invented charges.
Tempted to just ignore it, but don’t want to keep receiving threatening letters or have my name and credit rating besmirched. Seems to me that this business model is all about pushing the effort and responsibility onto the customer and away from the so-called professionals.
Now resolved (hopefully). Visit from Scottish Water (sub-contractor natch) to the hut to confirm that there is no water supply present. What a palaver; three separate companies, 6 letters, several emails, two phone calls and a site visit, just to confirm that something doesn’t exist.
This should put a stop to the water invoices.