Decision report 201104148

Summary
Mr C took over business premises in September 2009 and was advised that the water bill was paid as part of his business rate. Shortly afterwards, a water meter was fitted and he was told that he would be informed when it came into operation. Mr C heard no more until October 2011 when he received a bill from Business Stream.

Our investigation confirmed that in October 2009 Scottish Water installed a meter but failed to pass on this information to Business Stream. About two years later, as part of a routine audit, Business Stream established that a meter was in place. They read it and issued a bill for the water used. As it was clear from our investigation that the actions complained of were in fact those of Scottish Water and not of Business Stream, we did not uphold the complaint.

We did, however, make recommendations to Business Stream, and asked them to alert Scottish Water to these, given the circumstances in which the complaint arose.

Recommendations
We recommended that Business Stream:
• make Scottish Water aware of our criticism in this matter;
• satisfy themselves that the lines of communication between themselves and Scottish Water are sufficiently robust to prevent a recurrence of the problem; and
• extend Mr C's repayment period by a further 12 months.