Decision Report 201608651

Summary

Mr C made a complaint about backdated charges regarding water rates at a business unit he rented. Mr C used this unit for storage only and did not think he should be charged water rates. The water supply was temporarily capped and Mr C was under the impression this meant he would not longer have any charges, but Business Stream advised this was not the case and subsequently billed him. Mr C was also unhappy that his bill was passed to a recovery agency while his complaint was on-going. He also complained that it took nine months for Business Stream to respond at stage two of his complaint.

We began an investigation into Mr C's complaint, but were contacted by Business Stream who had reviewed their paperwork. They were of the view that the charges asked of Mr C were still correct but they did acknowledge failings in their complaints handling and gaps in the information they held on file. They therefore proposed to refund Mr C 50 percent of the bill he had paid. Mr C was satisfied with this outcome and the complaint was closed without further investigation.