When I moved here in 1993, as the sole occupant, I asked for a water meter. I was refused on the grounds that I shared the water pipes with my neighbours.

I received a letter this year from Thames Water replying to a recent request for a meter which set out a charges table. I was horrified to see that, as the sole occupant of a three-bedroom cottage, I had been for many years paying three times the amount. My annual bill was then adjusted to £219 rather than £623.

Jan Citroen, Surrey

Yet Thames Water refused to reimburse you for the bills overpaid in the past, which it says you had not challenged at the time. As you say, you had had nothing to go by.

Thames Water said that when you initially unsuccessfully requested a water meter in 1993 and then in 1998, it did not have an alternative tariff for customers such as yourself. Therefore your account continued to be charged on the rateable value of your home.

In 2001 the Government introduced the Average Household Charge, based on the number of bedrooms and the size of the property, for customers who had newly applied for a water meter but were unable to have one.