A mum-of-two was horrified to receive a water bill of almost £2,000 after her housing agency failed to fix a leak on her property. Melanie Scott de Mendez, 51, received the £1,763.29 bill - compared to the usual £470 - for just six months of water usage - despite South West Water warning her about a leak.
She complained to her housing management company Sanctuary Housing, but it failed to address the issue and ignored her for four months. Melanie made multiple complaints to both Sanctuary and South West Water - only to be told she would hear back from them in 28 hours.
She didn't hear anything back. Melanie, said: "There's been a leak since the 20 June or so. I only found out because South West Water wrote to me warning me that my water usage was unusually high.
"They asked me to do various 'relevant checks' to see if the leak was inside or outside the property, and they basically decided that they somehow knew it was outside the property. They said though that it was the responsibility of the house to sort, which they somehow knew or decided.
"They did offer to put a hold on my bill until 20 July, but then when I contacted my property managers Sanctuary Housing they sent a guy who couldn't fix the issue. Then nothing happened for weeks, so I put in several official complaints to Sanctuary Housing and South West Water because I was now being charged for the leak.
"I only ever got back automated responses saying someone would get in touch within 48 hours - but nobody ever got back to me until I spoke to the press. I eventually rang South West Water in August to ask for some kind of support because nothing was happening, and they basically just said it was a third party dispute.
"The frustrating thing is that when I then got this other bill later, the bill was still in my name and so even if I dont have to pay it, it'll still affect my credit rating and stuff. You just don't know if you're going to ever get it sorted or if you'll have to pay something because you didn't raise the issue earlier - but how could I have known.
"It's obviously really stressful and worrying, and the matter is still technically not resolved."
Melanie, who normally pays around £77-a-month normally, says her biggest frustration about the incident is that the water is just being 'wasted needlessly', particularly during a national hosepipe ban. She has now heard from both South West Water and Sanctuary Housing, who claim they have made the repair a priority.
Melanie, a former waitress, added: "I've been put on their 'escalation team', which is something I'd never heard about, but apparently means I'm at the top of the pile to fix now. Supposedly they're going to update me every day until the matter is resolved - but we'll see if they stick to that.
"South West Water also says that they'll provide some kind of coupon payment system or something - so I won't have to pay for the leak now thankfully. The thing is though, when we're in the middle of a drought and water levels are really low, with a hosepipe ban in place for several months, it's just ridiculous.
"They shouldn't be able to get away with doing nothing about this while appealing to local residents to ration their water because reservoir levels are so low."
A spokesperson for Sanctuary Housing said that the company had committed itself to completing the repairs as soon as possible, and has employed a contractor to investigate the leak. Their statement aded: "We will be speaking to our tenant to discuss the increase in her water bills and are sorry this issue is taking longer than expected to resolve.”
A South West Water spokesperson added: “We will be contacting the customer and the housing association urgently to ensure the leak is investigated and a repair is carried out as quickly as possible. We are fixing up to 2,500 leaks a month and using the latest technology such as AI and satellites to find and fix leaks even faster.
"If customers do spot a leak we ask them to report it via our website or by calling us on our 24-hour leak helpline so we can investigate.”
The company added that whilst it is the housing association's responsibility to repair the leak as owner of the property, South West Water could carry out a repair if necessary. It said it will look to offer a leak allowance to remove the excess charges once the leak is repaired.
