Water Bill Rebate Entitlement for Multiple Households

A question about : Water Bill Rebate Entitlement for Multiple Households

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice...

I live on a rural estate of approximately 32 houses that has it's own sewerage plant. There is an annual service charge which, amoung other things, includes water usage, as we pay the water bill as a whole rather than individually. The estate is managed by a committee made up of several residents and has it's own bank account.
There had been a water leak for many years that was finally discovered and fixed. The local water company took full responsibility for the leak and have issued a rebate to the estate as a whole as we were paying for the leaking water as well as what we used. The amount is large...not sure of exact amount but Ј30000 approx. that had built up over the years.

My question is this...should the residents (ones that lived on the estate during the leak) be entitled to split the rebate equally, essentially having our money back that we have over paid?

The Committee has refused to do this and has kept this money and are intending to spend it on the communal areas of the estate. They have agreed to cut service charges by half for one year...this is ok however, new residents to the estate are benefiting from this when technically they never contributed to the over-payment in the first place, which seems unfair.

Hope this makes sense...any comments/advice much appreciated!

Best answers:

• If you've lived on the estate the entire time of the leak and intend to stay there until the money has been spent then you've got the benefit of the refund.
  I wouldn't worry about new residents getting a 50% reduction for a year on service charges. The previous residents entitled to the refund have left and it's probably quite difficult to trace them and issue a refund and if they have split up or died the committee would have to do a lot of chasing costing money which which eats into the refund for all.
• It is not so much a water issue as a legal issue.
  Without knowing the terms of reference of the committee, IMO they have taken a sensible decision.
  It would be nightmare to try and apportion the rebate to the residents according to how long they had been in residence - especially as you will not know exactly when the leak started.
  What about residents who have recently left? - How far do you go back? Have any recent residents died? If so should their family be entitled to a share?
  Although not a water issue, I owned a flat in a complex. When we bought the freehold and examined the books we discovered that we had been overcharged by the managing agents and got refunds. Our owners committee made exactly the same decisions as your committee.
• Yes see your point re new residents benefiting in place of the people that have moved...sort of balances it out.
  and yes more of a legal issue that a water one...sorry I never seem to get my posts in the right area!
  We have resided on the estate for the whole time that the leak was active and are now looking to put our house on the market this year so won't be around long-term to benefit. At roughly Ј1000 per household it is a lot of money which we and other residents could really do with. It's currently not being used as no-one can come up with and agree to anything to spend it on. I appreciate though that it wouldn't be an easy task to work out the logistics of fairly dividing it.