Decision Report 201300382

Summary

Mr C opened a business in a shopping centre. Three years later, he received an invoice for £8,700 for water charges based on a rateable value of £60,000. Mr C said the rateable value was wrong and was currently £40,000. He complained to us that Business Stream had unreasonably delayed in billing his company for the charges, and unreasonably refused to base the charges on the current rateable value of the property.

We did not uphold Mr C's complaints, as we found that there had been no delay by Business Stream. It was Mr C's responsibility to tell Scottish Water that his company had moved into the premises, and to choose a water service provider. After investigating, we were satisfied that there was no evidence that the company had done that, and we found that Business Stream had issued the invoice promptly when they became aware that the company was operating from the premises. We also found that Business Stream’s calculation of the charges was based on appropriate rateable values and was in line with their rateable values policy.