Neil - To be honest I am not sure what your rights are in the case of Water supplies, but I do feel that you are being given the "proverbial" end of the stick in this matter and also being treated unfairly.

Surely either the builder or the Water aurthority are singly or jointly responsible for the safe connection and accurate metering supply to your property, for my reason as stated above you could get clarification regarding your exact rights in this situation by contacting Ofwat the regulator...they may even take this case up for you on your behalf.

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/consumerissues/

I moved into a new house on 23/09/08, as far as I was aware the water meter was connected as I was receiving bills. In July this year united utilities sent and engineer out to check my meter. It would seem that the meter was never connected and all our bills had been estimated. After speaking to united utilities they claim it was the house builders responsibility to connect the meter. The house builder had given united utilites the meter reading when I moved in as they transfered the account from them to us so how was it never connected if they read it. Anyway getting to the point, united utilities are now claiming they can back charge me for usage in line with the Limitation act 1980 for the period between when I moved in (23/09/08) to now (sept 09). They are going to base this on an average taken from the meter that was installed recently and base this on an average of 4 weeks usage since installation. Is this legal as they have no real proof of the exact water usage I used while the meter was not installed correctly. I may well be using more now than I was then!! As it is not my responsibility to install the meter and I have made payments for my water to date where do I stand on having my bill back estimated for nearly a year.

Please help Neil