Not receiving a water bill is not the same as not paying for water. In leased, shared or managed premises, the cost may reach your organisation through a different route.
Not Receiving the Bill Is Not the Same as Not Paying the Cost
When asked about water charges, many organisations provide a simple response:
“We don’t receive a water bill.”
That may be correct, but it does not necessarily mean the organisation is unaffected by water and wastewater costs.
In leased, shared or managed premises, the organisation using the property may not be the party that receives the bill. A landlord, managing agent, facilities provider or another organisation may hold the water account and recover the associated costs through a different arrangement.
Water costs may therefore appear within:
Commercial service charges
Rent or occupancy payments
Facilities management agreements
Estate or campus charges
Managed workspace fees
Shared utility arrangement
The water bill may sit elsewhere, but the cost can still reach the occupier.
Why Can Water Costs Be Difficult to Identify?
The level of visibility varies considerably between properties.
In some buildings, water and wastewater charges are shown as a separate line within a service-charge statement. In others, they may form part of a broader utilities, facilities or property-management category.
A single supply may also serve several occupiers, communal areas or multiple buildings. The account holder may then use an agreed method to allocate costs across the estate.
This does not automatically mean that anything is wrong. It does mean that the route from the underlying water bill to the amount paid by an individual occupier may not be immediately apparent.
Questions Worth Asking
If your organisation does not receive a water bill directly, consider asking:
Who receives the water bill for our premises?
Is water included within our rent or service charge?
Can we see the underlying water costs?
What services and areas do those costs cover?
How is our share calculated?
Does the arrangement still reflect the property as it operates today?
Have there been alterations to the building, occupancy or supply arrangements?
The appropriate starting point will usually be your lease, occupancy agreement, service charge statements and any available supporting information.
Where interpretation of a lease or other legal document is required, advice from an appropriately qualified property professional or solicitor may also be necessary.
Why Visibility Matters
The purpose of asking these questions is not to assume that the charge is incorrect.
It is to understand:
Whether your organisation contributes towards water costs
Which services those costs relate to
How the amount has been calculated or allocated
Whether the available information reflects the current property arrangements
Whether further investigation would be proportionate
An organisation cannot make a properly informed decision about a cost it cannot see or understand.
How WTR Utilities Can Help
WTR Utilities provides independent support to organisations seeking to understand how water and wastewater services affect their premises.
Depending on the information available, we can help examine the relationship between the site, the available account information and the way water related costs are being recovered.
We do not start by assuming there is an error. We start by establishing what information is available, what it appears to show and which questions may need to be asked.
The Key Question
You may not receive a water bill but the more important question is:
Are you certain your organisation is not paying for water?
Contact WTR Utilities if you would like to discuss your premises and the information available.
Important information: This article provides general information about non-household water and wastewater arrangements. Individual accounts, properties and charging arrangements vary. The content should not be treated as confirmation that any particular charge is correct or incorrect, or as legal advice on a lease or property agreement.