High Water Bills

Chopperz

I've just moved into a new one-bedroom flat so have been busy sorting out all the bills. My water is supplied by Thames Water and my yearly bill is going to be £250. Now this seems quite a lot to me, especially as we paid the same when we lived in a five bedroom house (with five people, not one) just down the road. I've had a look at the discussions about getting a water meter fitted but it seems that this won't save me any money (only appears to save for a few people living in large houses). Has anyone got any ideas? If I ask Thames Water to re-assess me they will refuse and say that it is based on rates.

Thanks
Stephen

bootman

I think you should get a meter fitted. If its only you then your bill will probably be halfed. I live in a large house 4 showers every day taking place, washing machine on every day dishwasher at least once a day. I only pay 250.00 for all of that a year with a meter

Cardew

By 'new flat' you don't mean 'new' I assume?

The stupidity of the now defunct Rateable Value(RV) system was that it was quite possible for a small flat to have a similar RV to a much larger house - and as RV is the basis of the un-metered tariff, you are likely to be paying the same annual bill.

Don't forget that water charges have risen a lot in the past couple of years so ensure that you are comparing 2005 bill with 2005 bill.

There really is no simple way of determining if you will be better off on a meter - it depends on 4 factors:

The charging zone within Thames water.
Your Rateable value.

Your consumption of water in the flat.
The metered tariff with standing charge for a flat.

Obviously you need to determine for both metered and un-metered calculations if your surface water goes into a soakaway or a sewer,

As a rough guide - according to the Water Companies - the average water consumption is 50-60 cubic metres per person, per year.