METERING

Provision of meter

22. 1. The council shall supply and install a meter, of a size approved by the council, in the communication-pipe to any premises to which it has agreed to supply water.

2. Where required by the council, the consumer shall provide a suitable and approved place on his stand in which the council can install the meter.

3. When a meter is installed on a stand, the consumer or owner of the stand shall take all steps to ensure that any authorized official of the council shall at all times have access to such meter for the purpose of reading, overhauling, removing or carrying out any such work on the meter as may be considered necessary.

Meters generally

23. 1. Any meter provided and installed by the council, together with the fittings connected therewith, shall be, and shall remain, the absolute property of the council.

2. The council shall, at its own cost and expense, maintain and repair any meter provided by it, to the extent of ordinary wear and tear.

3. The consumer shall be responsible to the council for taking all reasonable precautions for the safe keeping and protection of any meter installed upon his premises, and shall be liable to the council for any damage which may be done to or sustained by such meter as a result of any failure to take such reasonable precautions.

4. The council may, at any time and at its own expense, disconnect and remove any meter and install and substitute any other meter.

1974

Quantity of water registered and payment therefor

24. 1. Save as is provided in section 26, the quantity of water which is registered by the meter as having been supplied to any consumer shall be deemed to be the quantity actually so supplied.

2. The quantity of water so registered shall be paid for by the consumer in accordance with the prescribed charge or tariff.

3. If it is found that –

a) an account submitted to a consumer contained a factual error or omission in regard to

i. any meter-reading or conversion of any results into other terms;

or

ii. a calculation;

or

iii. the application of the appropriate scale of charges or minimum charge or fixed charge in terms of any prescribed tariff;

or

b) The basic terms or conditions on which metering, tariffing and accounting of water supplied to a consumer has changed as a result of a change in his service or premises or usage or supply of water; the council shall submit an amending account to the consumer, covering any period with the four months prior to the date on which any such error, omission or change was discovered, so that such amending account correctly adjusts the amount of money due to the council for the said period.

Entry in books of council binding

25. Where a consumer disputes a meter-reading, in the absence of evidence showing either that the entry in the books of the council has been incorrectly made or that the meter was at the time of such reading registering incorrectly, the consumer shall be bound by the entry in the books of the council showing the meter-reading.

Dissatisfaction with reading

26. 1. If any consumer is at any time dissatisfied with any particular reading of a meter supplied by the council, and is

1975

1. Desirous of having such meter tested, he shall give written notice to the council within thirty days after receipt of notice from the council of such reading, and shall, at the same time, pay to the council the prescribed deposit, and thereupon the meter shall be tested by the council.

2. If such meter is found to be registering incorrectly, the council shall retain the deposit.

3. If such meter is found to be registering incorrectly, the council shall refund the deposit to the consumer, and shall reaffix a meter in good working order without charge to the consumer, and the charge for water consumed during the four months preceding the reading in dispute shall be adjusted in accordance with the degree of error found: Provided that, where such meter has been installed for a period of less than eight months, such adjustment shall be made in respect of fifty per centum of such lesser period.

4. For the purposes of this section –

a) the meter shall be considered to be registering correctly if no error in excess of the permitted tolerance of three per centum is recorded at the rate of normal flow;

b) “normal flow” means two- thirds of the maximum flow-capacity of the meter.

Failure of meter to register

27. 1. Where any meter is found to have ceased to register, the council shall repair or replace such meter as soon as possible.

2. Unless the council is satisfied that a lesser or greater quantity of water has been consumed, the quantity of water to be paid for by the consumer from the date of the reading of the meter prior to its failure to register until the time of its repair or replacement shall be estimated by the council on the basis of –

a) the average monthly consumption of water upon the premises served by the meter during the two months prior to the last registration; or

b) if an estimate in terms of paragraph (a) is not possible or practicable, the consumption in the corresponding period of the previous year upon such premises; or

c) if an estimate in terms of paragraph (a) or (b) is not possible or practicable, the average monthly consumption

1976

Upon the premises served by the meter over a period of two months after repair or replacement of the meter has been effected.