Southwark Council have confirmed that current tenants still awaiting their water bills refund can hope to receive their cheques by January 2017, Kirsty Purnell writes.
Former tenants will be dealt with in the second wave of refunds. The claims process for former tenants has been opened and once verification has been completed, tenants can expect to start receiving their cheques from January.
Around 74,000 current and former tenants were overcharged on water-service bills between April 1 2001 and July 28 2013, while Southwark Council was collecting water bills from tenants on behalf of Thames Water.
A high court judge ruled in March that the council had acted illegally by imposing administration costs in the bills sent to tenants and keeping the costs received as a profit, rendering £28.6m payable in refunds to affected customers.
The council has issued 28,108 refunds so far but are still processing some of the more complex cases.
Councillor Stephanie Cryan, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “It’s been a complex process with lots of unique circumstances to take into account but on the whole, I am pleased with the progress we have made. The refunds will continue into next year and more residents and former residents will receive cheques.”
Feels like delay tactics to me. Even though Ive lived in the same property for 12 years, I was considered a former tenant as there was a change to the tenancy agreement. I accept that, and had to wait until November to apply. The confirmation email I received said they try to process applications within 10 days but can take up to eight weeks.
From what the above article says, they have no plans to start issuing refunds until January which will be past the 8 weeks as stated in their email.
Rather annoying.
Mine is not a complex case as a former Tenant and I applied in October for the refund and still not heard anything from Southwark council.
Filled both forms in Southwark and xtenant form still no reply been couple months Southwark given u ref number to keep but don’t get back like they say
Still waiting its a joke, and you send letters about court for 63 pound rent arrears
have you recieved yours yet?
ant, I applied in November, waited until 8 March for a letter confirming the refund. Still no money and no reply from my numerous calls and emails to the council about where it’s gone. Conveniently they stopped paying interest on what they owe me on 28 Feb, now on 12 April. And they have the cheek to charge an admin fee for the privilege