Tenants who move on are not entitled to water charge refunds

Thousands of renters will be denied a water charge refund if they move properties under proposed guidelines agreed by the energy regulator.

The regulator has proposed that households will be entitled to a rebate if their metered bill turns out in fact to be less than their initial assessed bill.

The regulator said yesterday that three in four households will not be metered in time before water charges are introduced in October and therefore will face assessed costs until meters are installed.