Irish Water sets new deadline of January ’16

Irish Water has set a final deadline of January 31, 2016, for householders to register with the company and still get back some or all of any money they may have been overcharged up to then.

In an attempt to clear up new confusion about the shifting deadlines, the company said that anyone who registers by December 31, and has been billed too much in the meantime, will be able to claim back the full amount of the overcharge.

Anyone who registers from January 1-31 will only be able to claim back overcharges relating to the last bill they received. By that stage, they will have received three bills.

There is no direct penalty for failing to register after that date but households risk being overcharged without a claim-back facility and they will not be able to claim the €100 water conservation grant until they do register.

The first bills, covering January-March this year, are due to be issued in about three weeks to all customers who have registered — or validated as the company calls it. They will also issue to households that have not yet confirmed whether they are customers or what kind of customer they are.

More than 1.23m have registered, but 20% of those did so to state that they had private water services and were not Irish Water customers. A company spokesperson said that meant 66% of households presumed to be liable for charges had so far registered.

If the remainder do not register before their first bill issues, they will be charged the default bill of €65 for January-March (equating to €260 for the full year), even if they are only liable for the €40 quarterly charge applicable to a single-person household.

Irish Water said it was extending the claim-back period because it aimed “to provide a flexible and customer friendly service”.

“Irish Water put this facility in place to allow a longer period for customers to become familiar with water charges arrangements while allowing every opportunity to ensure accurate billing.”