What we do

Our audit team will review the water expenses to verify the charges and assess potential savings. We validate your bills and check the data quality and consistency to ensure the bills are:

• Accurate – they truly reflect the commercial terms agreed with the Supplier
• Consistent – they reflect the connection arrangements and consumption of each site
• Complete – they only include valid charges for the commodity and delivery of service

Key areas we look at are:

• Assessment of surface water drainage, connectivity investigations, and non-returns to sewer
• Property drainage
• Billing errors and anomalies such as: billable periods, duplicate charges, incorrect charging assessment
• Overcharging due to complex supply addresses such as: multi occupied / bulk supplies, property changes such splits, mergers, new connections, and inadvertent shared supplies
• Water metering issues
• Water leaks
• Damage caused by flooding from Water Company assets – water supply, wastewater, surface water and highways drainage
• Connectivity analysis and non-returns to sewer for wastewater services
• Private wastewater solutions such as septic tanks and private treatment and discharge licences
• Assessment of trade effluent
• Assessment of unmeasured charges
• Assessment of highway drainage services

We will highlight any areas where savings can be made and will also do a retrospective analysis, as charges going back six years can also be re-claimed.

We will submit a report outlining the potential savings and outlining our terms of service, explaining what these charges are and why we believed these should be cancelled/reduced.

We will also advise you if there are no savings to be made, giving you peace of mind that all is in order.

Our Investigation & Validation Processes Include:

• All cost components are correct and as expected
• All consumption rates are as consistent with the contract rates
• All periods are charged correctly
• All use of system components and charges are consistent with the connection agreement and correctly calculated
• Standing charges review and validation
• Meter charges are identified and correct
• Non commodity and commodity charge checks

For large portfolios that tend to be ever changing, we’ve had success in identifying:

• Charges raised against vacant properties
• Charges against incorrect tenants
• Billing errors and anomalies such as: billable periods, duplicate charges, incorrect charging assessment
• Charges for services or assets that are no longer needed or present
• Overcharging due to complex supply addresses such as: multi occupied / bulk supplies, property changes such splits, mergers, new connections, and inadvertent shared supplies
• Metering and metering configuration issues
• Re-assessment of connection charges, supply capacity and connection assets

Our engineers will visit the business premises to carry out a drainage inspection and map out the infrastructure.

Site inspection includes:

• Engineers will review any drainage plans provided by the customer in advance of the inspection
• Prior to the site inspection, engineers will assess a preliminary report detailing relevant information about the site’s drainage infrastructure and key features
• Engineers will meet with the designated site contact to outline the planned approach for the drainage inspection
• A comprehensive walkthrough of the entire site will be conducted, including visits to nearby watercourses and soakaway locations to identify any outfall points
• Once familiar with the site layout, engineers will proceed with dye and sound tests, accessing manholes as needed
• Engineers will ensure conclusive testing results are obtained before preparing a detailed report for the claims management team’s review
• A draft plan will be developed, reviewed, and refined as needed, with accompanying photos of outfall and soakaway areas included for documentation

The information from the initial investigation and site visit will be collated and a case to submitted to the water company. Combined Utilities will provide all the evidence needed for the water company to make an initial assessment.

• Upon completion of the site inspection, the engineering team will submit a comprehensive report to the claims management team
• The claims management team will digitize the engineer’s draft plans, marking drainage infrastructure in accordance with Water Industry Act guidelines and relevant regulatory standards
• All evidence, including photographs and inspection notes, will be thoroughly reviewed by the claims management team to build a detailed case
• The claims management team will compile supporting documents, substantiating the rationale for cancelling or reducing the charges based on site-specific findings and industry regulations
• This compiled case will be submitted to our Third-Party Intermediary (TPI) team at the water retailer, and subsequently forwarded to the water wholesaler for formal review and decision

Combined Utilities will take care of the whole process with the water company, providing the evidence required and all correspondence until a resolution is achieved.

• Once the case is submitted, we will log the submission within our internal CRM system to manage progress and we’ll assign an internal Case Manager to the case. The Case Manager will also be the point of contact for the client
• We will initially give the water retailer 10 business days to respond to the case. If an update isn’t provided at this point, we will follow up with communication by email and phone call
• CUL will hold the Water Retailer to strict SLA’s, to ensure the cases are being managed effectively and within the agreed times
• The Water Wholesaler will usually book in a site inspection to validate our case, we will always accompany them to the site visit to ensure that the visit goes smoothly, and the case is presented professionally
• We will ensure that any rejections are reviewed within a timely manner and effectively disputed until we obtain the desired and correct outcome for our client

Once a successful outcome has been obtained, the business will then receive the refund directly from their water company. Combined Utilities will provide a full report showing the savings achieved.

• Once the Water Retailer provides confirmation that the case has been accepted, we will request a report in writing directly from the Water Wholesaler. This report will include the decision of the claim, the date that it was accepted and the historical date of when the case has been backdated to
• We will then request a full breakdown and recalculation of charges from the Water Retailer, including the credit which is due to the client.
• We will then use the dates and credits provided to conduct a full reconciliation to ensure that the credit due to the client is correct, and if not, we will dispute this
• Once the credit amount is agreed, we will organize either a credit or refund to the client and provide a full report showing the breakdown of how the credit has been calculated, along with the future savings the client will benefit from
• We will we then provide the report to the client along with an invoice for our fees