Kerry Co Council water charges

killer007 · 06-04-2008 8:58pm #1

Have others received bills from Kerry County Council in recent weeks for water charges ? I wasn't aware that private homeowners were going to be charged for water or maintenance of water systems.

Our water usage in this bill is below the domestic allowance so we are not being charged for water but are being charged €26.25 "Network Management Charge". From what I can gather from the invoice this covers a 4 month period, so we are now going to be charged €78.75 per annum for this.

Any comments ?

kerry4sam · 06-04-2008 10:33pm

mind my asking if you are in the North or South of Kerry..down here in South Kerry myself and no, nothing has arrived...this post was a shock(price-wise) when i told them today...We all knew about the monitoring of water output etc with the trouble they caused putting in the metres but jeez, so far, no letter of the sorts in my area...cheers for the heads up though

carchaeologist · 06-04-2008 10:55pm

Didnt think it was private homeowners, just thought it was buisinesses,and farms that were getting charged..

maims3875 · 07-04-2008 9:25am

carchaeologist wrote: »

Didnt think it was private homeowners, just thought it was buisinesses,and farms that were getting charged..

Yiou correct is saying that only businesses and farms are getting charged at present, but it won't be that far away before the put charge on domestic use.

kerry4sam · 07-04-2008 10:52am

maims3875 wrote: »

Yiou correct is saying that only businesses and farms are getting charged at present, but it won't be that far away before the put charge on domestic use.

agree defo wont be too long away unfortunately as they have put the water metres outside the houses and in the estates in my area already

killer007 · 07-04-2008 7:13pm

I'm in the south kerry area.

carchaeologist · 07-04-2008 7:51pm

How expensive will it be to meter every house in the county....

maims3875 · 08-04-2008 7:40am

carchaeologist wrote: »

How expensive will it be to meter every house in the county....

I suppose that it will cost between 300-450 to meter each house, but the council will work that into a business plan and recoup the value over five or so years, once everything is paid off, they won't reduce the cost to joe public, thats for sure.

kerry4sam · 08-04-2008 9:42am

was there any public meetings about the water metres? I dont recall hearing anything about these or reading anything in the local papers informing people of the costs and/or limits before charges occur ... If someone has a link to a website re:the above please send it on to me. I'm curious as to the methods they're using to keeping the public informed

killer007 · 08-04-2008 8:30pm

No pre-warning given by co.council but I'm going to ring them tomorrow to clarify suitation and will update you!

carchaeologist · 08-04-2008 11:01pm

Thank jeebus i have my own spring,i presume every house in the county connected to a local authority supply will be metered.

kerry4sam · 09-04-2008 9:18am

carchaeologist wrote: »

Thank jeebus i have my own spring,i presume every house in the county connected to a local authority supply will be metered.

apparently so ... I'm a few feet from a main road but i have seen them being put in in estates also...

count yourself lucky that you have your own spring in a cherry in kerry

maims3875 · 09-04-2008 10:05am

killer007 wrote: »

I'm in the south kerry area.

Kenmare?

killer007 · 09-04-2008 9:15pm

Yes Kenmare Area.
Rang up the council today and because we just recently took over a 6 acre farm (6 acres is like a big back garden!) we're being charged a maintanance fee just for a guy to come and read our meter and maintain it.
What a joke,we've to pay the council to maintain a meter that we had no say in being installed,they've put in the wrong place(it's stopping a wall extension) and it's only for thier use in metering our water consumption.
look out everbody, paided for water is only a step away!

carchaeologist · 09-04-2008 10:39pm

Death and taxes..the only certainties in life....ho hum..:rolleyes:

maims3875 · 10-04-2008 7:15am

killer007 wrote: »

Yes Kenmare Area.
Rang up the council today and because we just recently took over a 6 acre farm (6 acres is like a big back garden!) we're being charged a maintanance fee just for a guy to come and read our meter and maintain it.
What a joke,we've to pay the council to maintain a meter that we had no say in being installed,they've put in the wrong place(it's stopping a wall extension) and it's only for thier use in metering our water consumption.
look out everbody, paided for water is only a step away!

With regard to the charges, you could declare that you are no longer using the land for farming and that you do not require water except for domestic use, put that in writing and they have to justify their position.

If you are using the house for anything but your prime resisdence, they can't charge you for domestic water.

keep us informed

dh0661 · 11-04-2008 9:17pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

Thank jeebus i have my own spring,i presume every house in the county connected to a local authority supply will be metered.

When you say that you have your own spring, do you mean a well ?.
Any idea how much it would cost to drill a well ?. I would love to have our own supply of clean, fresh water.

carchaeologist · 11-04-2008 9:33pm

dh0661 wrote: »

When you say that you have your own spring, do you mean a well ?.
Any idea how much it would cost to drill a well ?. I would love to have our own supply of clean, fresh water.

Own spring, as in straight out of the ground, its piped to a tank, then plumbed to the house.Its fairly old, it used to supply a lot of houses many moons ago, but just me and my neighbour now.Well drilling is expensive enough i would say...

dh0661 · 11-04-2008 10:05pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

.Well drilling is expensive enough i would say...

I'm going to check it out next week, I think I heard someone advertising well drilling on radio Kerry. I will report back, if anybody else is interested.

carchaeologist · 11-04-2008 10:08pm

Cool, il ask my old man aswell, he had a well drilled at his new place, i cant remember how much he said it was though...

13-04-2008 4:26pm

You know what bugs me? The council make no allowance for people who make an effort with collecting rainwater for household use. We have 2 huge rainwater tanks built that keep the house in hot water supplies ( no crusty kettles, clogged hot water cylinders, lovely clear tea).

DeepBlue · 12-10-2009 9:44am

maims3875 wrote: »

With regard to the charges, you could declare that you are no longer using the land for farming and that you do not require water except for domestic use, put that in writing and they have to justify their position.

If you are using the house for anything but your prime resisdence, they can't charge you for domestic water.

keep us informed

Apologies to the mods for digging up and old thread but it seemed more appropriate to keep the discussion in one place and I wanted to query the above.

We received our first bill out of the blue last week and similar to an above poster have a few acres that used to be used for farming but no longer are used thus.
Presumably therefore we could state our position to the Council and so reduce our charges?
Is the €26.25 "Network Management Charge" applied every month? :eek:

Also this subject may become topical due to the FF/Greens programme for Government this weekend which plans to introduce water charges.
If it does then I think I'm looking at an annual bill in excess of €230 and we wouldn't even be excessive users of water.

At least I have the warm satisfying glow of knowing that that bill helps to ensure the banks and property developers are looked after :rolleyes: :mad:.

Kerry Co Council water charges

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