Refund delayed after meter could not be found
I refer to the letter from Father P. Masschelein complaining about the delay in refunding a water deposit (South China Morning Post, March 23).
Father Masschelein wrote to us on December 12, 1996, complaining that the water account of the Catholic Mission of Rennie's Mill Village should have been closed on September 15, and he had not yet received the refund of deposit.
Although we were advised of the clearance programme of Rennie's Mill Village, which had taken a long time, we had no knowledge of the exact date Father Masschelein intended to give up consumership until we got his letter.
Our staff had visited the clearance zone on September 16, and were informed by the field staff that the meter should not be disconnected, because the premises were still occupied and a grace period was given.
Our staff returned on September 24 and noted that the premises had been vacated, but they were not allowed into the clearance zone to disconnect the water meter.
When they came back on October 16, they noted that the premises had been demolished and the meter was missing.
Inquiries were undertaken to ensure that the meter had actually been lost and not simply overlooked by our staff.
The case was then reported to the police for further investigation.
Under S(7) of the Waterworks Ordinance, the registered consumer is required to give an undertaking to accept responsibility for the custody of the water meter when he takes up consumership. Therefore, closure of an account involving a lost meter is not a straightforward procedure. First, we have to confirm that the meter could not be recovered and secondly we have to ascertain if the cost of the lost meter should be deducted from the balance of the water deposit held by us. Therefore, we advised Father Masschelein that the case was still under investigation when he asked about the deposit.
After reviewing the case, we accepted Father Masschelein's claim that the account should be closed and decided he should not be held responsible for the meter presumably lost during the demolition.
In the absence of a final reading, we prepared an estimated final account on March 21, for the period June 12 to September 15, 1996, based on the actual average daily consumption recorded in previous periods. A cheque for the refund of water deposit and the final water charges bill were sent to Father Masschelein on March 26.
We regret that the meter was lost and that there was a communication problem. We apologise to Father Masschelein for the delay in refunding his deposit.
YU CHUN-FUN FREDERICK for Water Authority
