Following review of sewerage based charges, Water Management Solutions UK (WMS) identified a problem with the highways drainage charges for this site.
Prior to WMS involvement, Rosenberger Micro-Coax had successfully challenged the drainage charges proving that no surface water entered into water company sewers, directly or indirectly, from this site. As a consequence United Utilities removed the surface water element to leave highways drainage charges (HD) only.
HD charges were calculated with a site area band 7, which is allocated to premises with hard-standing non-permeable areas between 7,000 - 11,999m2. Upon examination and scrutiny of this chargeable area, our analysis identified permeable unused areas that should have been excluded. Furthermore, we liaised with external agencies to determine whether the water company plan of the site was an accurate depiction of our client's boundary.
Additional discrepancies were uncovered and a formal claim was prepared and submitted to United Utilities outlining the results of our review.
In response, United Utilities accepted our claim in its entirety. The original chargeable area of 8,032m2 was reduced to 2,513m2 giving a new site area band 5 (1,500 - 2,999m2) was the basis of HD charging.
Annual charges reduced from £5,937.23 to £1,405.62 which is permanent allowance.
"Rosenberger Micro-Coax met with NWAA and GM Chamber of Commerce in May 2012, and as part of the Shared Services project they took away some info regarding our water costings over the year. They successfully identified an overcharge of £3,237.36 and managed to secure us a rebate for this amount, plus they also managed to reduce our annual water bill by £4,531 per year. This was all completed and resolved in a matter of months."
