Water Corporation forced to hand back hundreds of thousands in overpaid bills due to meter misreads

Water authorities have had to pay back almost $1.4 million in overcharged bills to WA homeowners, as the rates of meter misreads and errors soar. With cost-of-living pressures mounting for households, new figures show Water Corporation has been forced to pay 36,423 customers a combined $1.36m — including $465,000 due to misread meters — since July 1. But it has undercharged only four people for the same error. Last financial year, State-owned Water Corporation was forced to pay back almost $3m to 93,300 customers around the State. That included 6868 misread meters — a rate of 19 a day. Over the same period, it reported a post-tax surplus of more than $1 billion — the first time it has ticked over that mark. Liberal leader Libby Mettam lashed the Government for “forgetting the people it was supposed to serve”. “How can the Cook Government think it is reasonable to rake in up to $4m a year by overcharging families for water, when a record number of West Australians are struggling to pay the bills?” she said. “Governments should lower the cost of living, not put it up. “You have to question if it is simply a matter of sloppy housekeeping when thousands and thousands of households are being overcharged each year, while less than 10 are found to have been undercharged.” A Water Corporation spokeswoman said the organisation read more than six million meters a year. “Incorrect reads leading to an overcharge represent around 0.1 per cent of total meter reads in a given year,” she said. “Overcharging an account may occur due to human error by meter readers, changes to property boundaries, rebates applied retrospectively to concession card holders or a possible fault with either a meter or meter reading equipment.” The figures come ahead of the roll-out of the next wave of electricity bill credits to Synergy and Horizon customers accounts from Saturday. Asked directly on Thursday if options such as water bill or car registration relief was being considered, Premier Roger Cook said: “We’re continuing to look right across the spectrum of state government about how we can provide cost-of-living relief. “I’m certainly not ruling out more cost of living measures.” Last financial year, Water Corporation received more than $1.5 billion in water supply charges, up from $1.4b the year before.