Advice needed Northumbrian Water

honeyD

Hi, We have received our very first water bill which covers 16 Sept 08 to 31 March 09 for £171.16. I called today to get a paypoint card since I cant afford to pay it all at once and was told since there is only 4 months left to pay then the payments will be higher at about £21.40 every 2 weeks. Now I didnt factor this in when accounting for bills and stupidly assumed we wouldnt get a bill straight away (this is our first home).
So 4 months to pay a bill which usually has 6 months to pay or am I wrong in that? Doesnt really make sense why I cant just pay the 6 months over the 6 months time of the bill dates. Am I making any sense here?:rotfl:
Also our water is fixed and has a rateable value charge which I dont really understand, but this bill is the same amount as my parents were paying for 5 people living here, there are only 2 people here now so should it be cheaper at all? Or doesnt it matter how many people live here? Finding this all very confusing..

Cardew

Your bills if unmetered depend on the Rateable Value(RV) of your property, so it doesn't matter if you use no water or leave every tap running 24/7.

You cannot alter your RV - loads of posts on this subject.

Your only option is to get a meter - its free. If it turns out more expensive(highly unlikely) you can change back within 12 months.

debtfreein4years

Ive just moved to the area and am with Northumbrian Water and have found their call centre really helpful.

Im paying 22.50 a month for my water, it is estimated as we are on a meter, but I have a feeling that they have over estimated as I am here all year round, but working during the day and my partner is only here approx 5 months of the year due to his job.

Kinda looking forward to a couple of months time when I call up with the actual meter reading to see how much in credit I'm in.

Hope you get it sorted as that seems really high, especially compared to what I'm being asked to pay.

Gx

uncovered

When you pay monthly for your water NW take payments over 10 months. So as you have just moved in then you need to make your payments up to february. Obviously from April you will see your bills come down and I guess February and March you will have no payments at all. I dont know why this is the case, its just the way we work. My council do the same, 10 months payment so get 2 months off, I guess it is just an historical way of doing it.

With regards to to RV payment Cardew is correct, a meter would possibly be your best option. I am installing quite a few at the moment and infact have just dropped one in at a customers property. Personally I am on a meter, not through choice, but because I bought a new property back in 2000. There are 4 of us in our house, 2 kids, I am not extravagent with my water but obviously the washing achine and baths get used quite a bit. I pay £22 a month. For your info the average cost in NW area for meters are :1 person £180 2 person £220 3 person £280. But everybody is different.

If you want a meter fitting then contact nwl on 0845 7171100 and we will arrange for someone to come out. The meter installation is free, unless you want it installed in a location other than the one we recommend (basically if we say it can go inside and you want it outside we can charge).

It can take up to 90 days for the whole process to be carried out. As you pay in advance for your water we would initially have to estimate how much we think you are going to use. We do this by looking at the average consumption for 2 people in a property and as i said earlier that is about £220 a year. You can continue to pay as you are going to do now but obviously the payments would change to around £22 a month. We aim to read the meter every quarter, but only gaurantee to read it once a year. Every quarter you will get a statement which will show you how much you have paid to how much you have used.

At the end of the 12 months we will then re-assess your payment plan, so if you have paid to much the following year your monthly payment will be reduced to the amount we think you are going to use based on the previous years consumption.

At this point you also have the option to come back of meter if you want to. If you did that then you would revert to the way you are paying now (the old RV system). The meter would be left in place but would not be read. When you did sell the property on the next people that moved in would automatically get charged on meter and would not have an option to come off it.

Hope that helps. Essentially instead of paying £340 a year you would probably end up paying about £220 a year.