A RESIDENT was shocked to discover that he has been paying for next door’s water usage as well as their own for the past two years.

Kane Maloney, who lives in Carr Mill with his girlfriend, recently discovered that their water meter is on a shared supply, meaning they have been paying for both their own usage as well as the next door neighbours’ since they moved in during December 2020.

Kane said the situation only came to light following his own investigations into “increasingly high water bills”.

He initially believed the hefty bills had been due to buildings works which were being done at the house over 18 months.

However, as the charges remained high, with some bills stating they “were using the equivalent of six baths a day, his suspicions grew.

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“I thought there was something not right, we’ve definitely not used that water,” said Kane, 32, who now has a five-week-old new-born daughter with his girlfriend.

Kane contacted United Utilities believing there may have been a leak causing the excess supplies but there wasn’t one.

“I Googled it and read some news reports and there was one about someone using a shared supply,” he added.

“I work as a design co-ordinator so I asked for map records for the area and my property which they sent through, and on that drawing it showed a single supply.

“I knew those records were incorrect, I went out into the street and I turned our supply off for a couple of hours. I rang United Utilities and said ‘is it possible? Can someone come out and check?’ but we had to wait three weeks”.

Kane asked the neighbours to run the water and he said that next door had said theirs was also off and had been when Kane had switched his own supply off.

“I said ‘I think we’re on a shared supply here but I’m being billed for your water usage’. That confirmed it. I told United Utilities and they said I still needed to wait three weeks for one of their engineers to come which they did.”

Kane said he is to be refunded the excess charges which amount to £330.

Although the issue has now been resolved, Kane said he believes the situation “constitutes a lack of due diligence from United Utilities when they fitted the meter”.

The meter, situated in a footpath outside the garden, had been installed in 2007 when a previous owner had lived at the address on Dunmail Avenue.

“It is a poor performance on United Utilities’ behalf and their records are all out of date. Our neighbour is on a fixed rate and we have been paying for theirs also.”

Kane added: “I am just relieved something has been done, the meter has been removed and we are on a fixed rate on our direct debit now.”

The dad-of-one wants to make other residents who may shared supplies aware and to perform their own checks.

“Every time I walk round now and see a similar property with water meters I think ‘are they in a similar situation? To us’. It’s worth a check.”

A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “The issue with Mr Maloney’s account has now been resolved, and we are sorry that it took longer than we would have liked.

“We have been in contact with Mr Maloney to review the shared supply and his bills. His account has now been updated to the appropriate tariff, backdated to the date he moved into the property.

"This has resulted in a refund to Mr Maloney, which we have paid, with nothing further to pay on his bill until April 2023. We have also made additional goodwill gestures for the inconvenience.

“Our apologies again to Mr Maloney for the delay in resolving this matter.”