11 November 2008
A woman from Bradford has been unknowingly paying her neighbour's water bill for 16 years while trying to keep her own consumption to a minimum.
Jean Shaw said that since moving into her home in 1992, her quarterly bills have been around £75.
The single mother claimed she regularly shared bath water with her children and avoided flushing the toilet in a bid to bring them down.
"For 16 years we would only do one clothes wash a week," she remarked.
"We lived as if we were in Africa. Water was like gold dust."
Ms Shaw realised something was wrong when a large family moved in next door in February and her bills shot up to £185.
It was later discovered that her water meter was connected to her neighbour's home.
She has now been offered £150 compensation from Yorkshire Water, although she claims this is an unacceptable amount and is demanding £10,000.
Yorkshire Water operates over 700 water and sewage treatment works and 120 reservoirs and also owns around 40,000 miles of water and sewerage mains.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
Content for the uSwitch.com market news service is provided by a third party, Adfero Ltd. Whilst uSwitch.com makes reasonable efforts to check the reliability of this content, uSwitch.com does not guarantee the accuracy thereof or endorse the views or opinions given by Adfero Ltd, unless expressly stated otherwise.