Greater Western Water bill delay

Notification scenario

Does EWOV consider that you were told?

You logged onto your GWW online account, and a message clearly told you your bill was delayed.

Yes, because it is targeted to you and the portal log in date can be verified. The message will need to be clear. 

A message on Greater Western Water’s website or social media saying some bills will be delayed.

• Yes, if it is clear to us that you saw this message on Greater Western Water’s website or social media on a particular date. 

• No, if there is no information to show you accessed the website or social media content on a particular date.

Post or email correspondence addressed to you which told you about the delayed bill.

Yes, if Greater Western Water can show, on balance, the correspondence was sent to your nominated contact or email address.

You called Greater Western Water about your account and were told your bill was delayed.

Yes, from the time you were told about the delayed bill. We may need to see the contact notes, a call recording or transcript to confirm the discussion and relevant date.

You say you were not told until you received the late or catch up-bill.

We will look at this on a case-by-case basis. If Greater Western Water can show that it told you about the delayed bill earlier, it can bill you for your usage and network charges in the four months before that date. If this cannot be shown, EWOV may accept that you were told when the delayed bill was issued. 

Issue

EWOV approach

My bill is high.

We will review your bill to check that Greater Western Water has charged you in accordance with the Water Industry Standard and the bill is otherwise correct.

I’ve been billed for charges more than four months before I was notified.

We will ask Greater Western Water to tell us the notification date. We may ask Greater Western Water to waive any usage and network charges that are more than four months before they notified you.

I’ve been told my bill is being issued on a certain date, but I am not happy about this, and I want to receive it sooner.

We understand this is frustrating,however, we can’t make Greater Western Water issue the bill sooner. If there are no additional issues that need to be investigated, we will usually ask you to wait for your bill.

After you receive the bill, if you have further concerns, you can contact us.

The bill delay has caused payment difficulty.

EWOV will review if Greater Western Water is working with its customers to set up a reasonable payment plan and to explore appropriate payment difficulty options. 

I have now received my bill, but my concession was not applied.

If you usually have a concession applied to your bill, we expect Greater Western Water to amend the bill with the correct concession.

Greater Western Water says it will give concession card holders a $50 rebate if you receive a combined bill. A combined bill will have two quarterly billing periods in the one bill. More information is available on Greater Western Water’s website. 

Where relevant, we will check if Greater Western Water has applied the $50 rebate as well as any relevant concession.

If you suffered a further loss because the concession was not applied to your bill, we will consider this on a case-by-case basis.

I have now received my bill, but the delay was inconvenient.

We acknowledge the delay may be inconvenient and frustrating, however, we do not consider compensation just because there was a system error. 

It is unlikely we would award compensation for the inconvenience caused by the delay, unless there were additional circumstances that resulted in unreasonable and avoidable distress or inconvenience to you.

If there are other issues, such as service or high bill concerns which we could also look at, we will consider these issues under the one complaint. We will not close the complaint until all related issues are resolved.

The delay meant I couldn’t change my usage habits.

If you can show that receiving your bill earlier would have reasonably prevented further avoidable loss or harm, we will consider your circumstances on a case-by-case basis.

I’ve received a late bill and then another bill in a short period.

If you receive two quarterly bills in a short period, which is less than the usual billing cycle (quarterly), we expect Greater Western Water to provide a reasonable time to pay the two bills. We also expect Greater Western Water to ensure its customers are advised of the payment difficulty assistance available and to help them access flexible payment plans.

The bill delay means I wasn’t aware of a leak.

We will investigate and assess this on a case-by-case basis to understand what would have happened if the bill had been received when it was due.

I think I have a water leak, but I can’t confirm without my bill.

If you believe there’s a leak, we expect you to take reasonable action to minimiseyour loss. You can conduct a leak test to assess whether there is a water leak. You may also need to hire a licensed plumber to investigate the suspected leak and repair (if required).

I didn’t receive my Water Information Statement (WIS) and I’m worried about settlement for my property.

We will refer your complaint to Greater Western Water and will help to get your case prioritised. You may also need to contact your conveyancer or solicitor to discuss whether settlement can proceed as planned. 

If you have suffered loss due to a delayed WIS, we will consider Greater Western Water’s response to the complaint and what outcome is fair and reasonable in the circumstances. We may review if a special meter read was offered to make sure the settlement includes actual water usage. 

We will consider complaints about loss caused by the system issue on a case-by-case basis. You will need to provide information to substantiate that the loss claimed was caused by Greater Western Water.