Grants for Water

Depuy lady

Hi,

I am writing this on behalf of my bf.

He was notified yesterday by the County Council that his water charges for the ytd amounted to €2700. When he investigated this he found a leak. His bill have more than trebled due to this leak.

He has now decided that numer one he won't pay the bill as the Council should have notified him of the leak. Number two he is going to get his own well drilled but this is very costly.

I am looking for advice on what he should do. I feel he should pay the water bill.

If he wants to get his own well drilled can anyone advise is there any grant available for this sort of work. I presume its very expensive.

Thanks for the help, as you can tell from the mail Im a novice when it comes to farming!

Bitten & Hisses

You can only get a grant if the mains supply doesn't pass your door. In your case, you already have a mains supply, so there's no grant available.

whelan1

you can claim the vat back ... was the water leak his fault or the county councils fault you could argue that if they where metering the water properly that they should have notified him of the leak ... i have had a few run ins with the council over leaks they knocked a good bit off my bill may be better to talk to them and see what they can do .. my last bill with them was 2900 ... they reduced it to 2000 and i paid it by interest free installments also bored a new well in the meantime and now i only pay them 30 euro per quarter but have it on stand by

marzic

the council usually read the meter a couple of times a year and only then will high usage become apparent. if the leak is inside the customers property then unfortunately it is the customers problem. I would suggest he talk to a local councillor to sus out how he might go about getting the bill reduced if possible. the problem is that unless the leak is adjacent to the meter in public property, the council will not have any obligation to know or discover that you have a leak within private property, but will still be entitled to look for payment based on the quantity of water passing through the meter. what is the age/condition of the meter?

leg wax

3700 euros in 2000 to drill + pump + house,esb connection was extra and we were waiting about 8 months, drill the well away from farm to avoid pollution, and if at all possible the higest point on the farm within reason, its bloody great for pressure with water flowing down hill.

whelan1

my point is that the meter reader should notify him of the increase in the meter reading - which is what ours does- the bills actually dont come out for a few weeks after the reading ...

JohnBoy

whelan1 wrote: »

my point is that the meter reader should notify him of the increase in the meter reading - which is what ours does- the bills actually dont come out for a few weeks after the reading ...

fair play to your meter reader, but I dont see how it's the meter reader's responsibility to report fluctuations in water useage.

can the farmer not also read the meter?

whelan1

in our case the meter is under a locked grid that only the reader has the key for

JohnBoy

oh, well that's a bit sh1t isnt it

Oldtree

I don't think you will get around this one as the pipes after the meter are your own responsibility. Have you thought about rainwater harvesting. If you have a number of sheds there is a huge amount of water that can be got and its more or less free after the initial setup costs. Dirt filters are the running costs or a UV or reverse osmosis filter for potable water. If its just for animals a 1 micron agricultural filter should be enough to cater for the animals needs.