In England, Wales and Northern Ireland organisations cannot choose the water authority they use, as this is determined by the location of their premises.
Without a competitive environment, there is no incentive for the water authority to ensure prices are correct and levied in the best interests of the customer. Water authorities have consistently been found to be charging commercial customers incorrectly. Charging schemes are complicated, opaque and vary from one water authority to another.
Without the experience and expert knowledge of each and every Water Authority’s scheme of charges, it is virtually impossible for businesses to know if their water costs are accurate and appropriate.
There are four phases to the Water Audit process:
Phase One: Information gathering
This first phase involves the collation and an initial appraisal of all water invoices, and requires the analysis of the last 12 months of invoices. If necessary, TEAM's partner will visit your site to collate and copy invoices. This enables us to identify the sites and issues to be prioritised for the site surveys. It also triggers the process of retrieving any incorrect charges identified at this stage.
Once we have completed the analysis of your invoices, TEAM will report back to you with our initial findings. If there is potential for savings and refunds, we will seek your written agreement to carry out a full audit and conduct a site survey to enable us to confirm any issues.
Phase Two: Site surveys
TEAM will advise you on the proposed programme of site surveys, and request site contact details. Visits are arranged and confirmed with sites and the site survey work is undertaken by our trusted partner. On completion of the initial analysis, we will report on the potential for results.
With your approval, we survey those sites identified for further investigation. Once the site surveys are complete, we report our confidential findings to you for consideration.
Phase Three: Reporting and recommendations
We submit a final report to you with a full explanation of findings and any recommendations. You are under no obligation whatsoever to action anything we report.
The information we provide will enable you to make decisions on the immediate savings and cost recoveries, and to consider any further recommendations for the medium to longer term.
We rely on our expertise and capability to produce savings and refunds for you. Should you wish to action any of our recommendations, our fees come solely from the clearly auditable savings and refunds that are realised. This way of working gives you the peace of mind that TEAM are focused on identifying all possible savings.
You are free to choose as many, or as few of the recommendations as you wish through an informed choice to proceed beyond this point. For those recommendations that you choose to implement, you must agree for TEAM and its partner to undertake all necessary implementation work.
Phase Four: Implementation
TEAM undertakes all necessary arrangements and project management, including all liaison with relevant water authorities, to deliver the work you have chosen to implement and obtain the most favourable outcome for you.
All invoices are analysed and verified through TEAM prior to payment. We will validate each invoice against benchmarked criteria before authorisation for payment is given. As a result of the initial audit, the likelihood for future issues arising will have been greatly reduced. However, any further discrepancies will be immediately reported, investigated and dealt with.
You will receive regular reports on our progress, and a final resolution report detailing savings/refunds.
To download a pdf version our "No win - No fee water services" information sheet please click here.
