Water Bills questions and comment

chinagirl

I lived in a rateable house paying £35 a month water rates. We moved into our new house which is 2 doors away and exactly the same as old house (were renting old, have bought new as like the area), exept it has a water meter. Arranged to continue to pay the £35 a month as before with Anglian Water. Now, a year later, get a letter saying our usage is way more than the amount we pay and they want to up our payments to £70 a month, DOUBLE!! Can they do that? We are a family of 2 adults, 1 teenager and 2 younger children. We have a normal electric shower, I do a lot of washing, but no more than any other household with as many people in it.

Does this seem excessive? My cousin thinks it is as she lives on a new estate, and has same amount of people in her house and pays just £30 a month, and sometimes gets a letter saying she is slightly in credit!

How can I stop using as much water without endangering the health of our family. If I did not flush the loo that would be awful, and only 3 of us have a daily shower, the 2 little ones run a mile when I mention soap and water to them, so consequently get away with a good scrub about once a week.

Please someone tell me where I am going wrong!

garys_missus

We've just been informed by Anglian Water, that our monthly bill is to rise by £20. We've been paying £38, which I thought was on the high side. To now have to pay £58 pcm seems rediculous. There are 5 of us in the house, 4 daily showers and perhaps 2 baths a week. The washing machine goes on about 4 times a week, and the dishwasher daily. We don't have an outside tap, so use a water butt for watering the flowers, and go to a carwash, so it's not either of them that's putting up the bill. I'm on a bit of an economy drive at the moment, but don't know how to knock this bill back to a reasonable amount.? When we phoned AW they said that we were using twice what other households were using. Have told the kids only one quick shower a day, but other than that, and a brick in the cystern don't know what to do. Any advice greatly accepted.

Cardew

Some of that extra £20 a month could be to pay off a debit balance that has built up over the past year. Also water charges have risen quite a bit this year.

There are plenty of sites on the web, including the water companies sites, that show the where water is used in households and give advice on how to save. However the big users are baths, washing machines, dishwashers and toilets.

deanos

garys_missus wrote:

We've just been informed by Anglian Water, that our monthly bill is to rise by £20. We've been paying £38, which I thought was on the high side. To now have to pay £58 pcm seems rediculous. There are 5 of us in the house, 4 daily showers and perhaps 2 baths a week. The washing machine goes on about 4 times a week, and the dishwasher daily. We don't have an outside tap, so use a water butt for watering the flowers, and go to a carwash, so it's not either of them that's putting up the bill. I'm on a bit of an economy drive at the moment, but don't know how to knock this bill back to a reasonable amount.? When we phoned AW they said that we were using twice what other households were using. Have told the kids only one quick shower a day, but other than that, and a brick in the cystern don't know what to do. Any advice greatly accepted.

Check for a leak just in case .

lapat

kazjacko wrote:

I have had a major victory with my water bill.
When I last left a comment, my meter reading had been multiplied by 4.5 which meant the charge for one quarter was £167, which did not seem to show the promise of the great saving compared to water rates.

However on closer inspection it seems that the 4.5 represented the calculation from gallons to litres. This assumed that the meter reading was for gallons, and therefore needed to be multiplied by 4.5 to show litres. This is strange as we had only had the meter installed this year, when we checked the front of the meter it definately had m3 on it.

Thames Water have just rang to confirm this, and will reisuue our bill. It should now be around £40, which is much more what I expected.

Anyone who has had high bills should go and check. It should work out around £1.40 per unit plus whatever you're standing charge is.

all meters that have been installed since 1992 have been metric i.e m3

anj_2

I rung the water board to query my bill, and when I got through the questions for data protection were awful. I was quite concerned as they ask the usual question eg, Name, address, account number, telephone, mobile.
Then they asked me for my national insurance number I couldn't belive it!!!
I wouldn't give it to them, why do they need that?
I don't even give them my phone number, as a result of missing 2 payments once and they kept ringing, and ringing me, you would think i owed them thousands. These people just don't leave you alone. Are they allowed to ask for your nat number, does anyone know?

CBminstrel

Hi there,

This is my first post on the forum, so apologies if I say anything stupid...

I wanted to ask about water charges...you see, I always thought that the set monthly charge (without a meter) is determined by property type regardless of how many lived in the house.

Now, I'm a student and I live in a two bedroom flat, and I am charged £35 a month which seemed very high, especially as I asked my mother what she had been paying and it had been about £25 for a three bedroom house.

When I phoned to ask, I was told that it was because of the area I lived in. Not the direct road/directly local area, but the actual town...is that right to be charge for your water by the town you live in rather than property type?

Sorry...as you can probably tell, I don't know much about this. I can't have a meter fitted as I am a tenant so it's not up to me.

Cardew

CBminstrel wrote:

Hi there,

This is my first post on the forum, so apologies if I say anything stupid...

I wanted to ask about water charges...you see, I always thought that the set monthly charge (without a meter) is determined by property type regardless of how many lived in the house.

Now, I'm a student and I live in a two bedroom flat, and I am charged £35 a month which seemed very high, especially as I asked my mother what she had been paying and it had been about £25 for a three bedroom house.

When I phoned to ask, I was told that it was because of the area I lived in. Not the direct road/directly local area, but the actual town...is that right to be charge for your water by the town you live in rather than property type?

Sorry...as you can probably tell, I don't know much about this. I can't have a meter fitted as I am a tenant so it's not up to me.

Welcome to the forum.

If you are not on a meter your water charges are based on the Rateable Value(RV) of your flat. This RV system finished in 1990 and was then used to assess your 'local taxes' - i.e. it was the forerunner of the current Council Tax banding.

The RV of a property was a complete nonsense and was supposed to be based on the notional rent the property could command. Size, location, views etc could all affect the RV.

So your flat will have an RV from 1990(that only water companies use) and you will pay a charge for water and sewerage for each £ of the RV. The amount of this charge not only varies by the water company, but there are charging zones within that companies catchment area.

You will very probably be better off with a meter and, if the account is in your name, many companies insist that a meter is fitted for change of account holder; so call them and ask that they insist on a meter; then tell your Landlord.


In some flats it is not possible to fit a meter and then you will be given an assessed charge; which is almost certainly will be less than your current charge.

ellishnoo

I live in 2 bed flat in central london, and believe I am being charged too much water rates at £390 a year. I believe this property I live at is set wrong, and cant get it resolved, I have a letter from THames water saying my property is set as a 4 bedroom propety and this is what it was just before I moved in, and before the propertywas divided into two flats.
How and where can I go to check this, I notice Martin Lewis talks about the wrong rates for council tax well I believe the same is forthe water rates as they are linked. Any thoughts anyone!!!

wideboy1

hi all sorry if this is in the wrong place but i need some help with the cost of my water bill.

my mums has the same cost of house to mine she has a 2 bed house in a are of coventry and i live in a 2 bed flat in a diffrent area of coventry and she pays £120 water rates and i pay £273.92 for mine.

our houses are both rented and if we were to buy them mine would cost about £5000 more thats it, i have rang the water borad before and asked them why mine is more and i was told it goes on the value of out homes. is this right and how can i clallange the water bill as mine is so much more.

thanks guys