Decision Report 201508208

Summary

Mr C raised concerns about Business Stream's handling of his water charges. In particular, he complained that he was paying for a neighbouring business's water consumption. He was also unhappy with the charges for drainage and road drainage and the manner in which Business Stream responded to his complaints.

During our investigation, Business Stream accepted that Mr C was paying for another firm's water services and agreed to install a sub meter to that property to ensure that going forward Mr C would not be liable for their water services. We therefore upheld this aspect of Mr C's complaint. Business Stream also accepted that the matter had taken a considerable length of time to resolve and agreed, as a gesture of goodwill, to clear his outstanding balance.

We were satisfied that Business Stream had considered Mr C's position that he was not liable for waste and drainage charges, and following investigation, had confirmed that, as Mr C enjoyed the benefit of a connection to the public sewerage network, he was liable for property drainage charges and roads drainage charges. We did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that Business Stream:

• apologise to Mr C for their handling of this matter; and
• ensure that complainants receive a robust response which contains adequate information on the reasons for the decision reached on their complaint.