Checking a business water invoice

A business water invoice covers more than the water that comes in. In England, retail services are open to competition, so the retailer named on your invoice bills you, while the wholesale charges within it are set by the regional wholesaler. Most invoices carry four kinds of line.

The meter reads. Are they actual or assessed? An assessed or estimated charge continuing for long periods is the single most common reason a water bill does not reflect the site.

The meter itself. Does the serial number on the invoice match the meter on site, and is the meter size the one you are being charged a standing charge for?

Every SPID on the account. Supplies at sites you have left, or belonging to a neighbouring occupier, are billed on for as long as nobody checks.

The waste water proportion. Where a large share of the water supplied does not return to the sewer, for example water lost to evaporation, taken into a product or used for irrigation, the assumed return figure may not fit the site.

The drainage basis. Surface water charges rest on an assumption about how the site drains. Where rainwater does not enter the public sewer, that assumption is worth testing against a site plan.

Continuous night flow. A metered site that never reads zero overnight is usually paying for a leak, and paying for the waste water on it as well.

Water lost through a leak is charged as water supplied and, in most cases, charged again through the waste water line applied to that volume. That is why an unresolved leak on a metered supply moves cost faster than most billing errors, and why overnight consumption is the first thing to read on a water account.

Retail competition affects the retail element of the charge, which is the smaller part of most invoices. Getting the meter reads, the SPID list, the return-to-sewer assumption and the drainage basis right acts on the larger part. Do that first, then look at who bills you.