Water Bills questions and comment

deanos

Have you checked for a leak or a crossed supply

Cardew

Smac13 wrote: »

I have an water meter - 2 adults live in the house but we both work full time - we have cut water usage down as much as possible and yet my Anglian water bils are very high - they say we use 4,000litres a week and want me to pay £60 a month tby direct debit - am I the only person to have this problem?

The UK average usage is 60 cubic meters per person per year.

So for two people you would expect on average to use about 2,300 litres per week.

As said above, if you are convinced your water consumption is low, a leak is the probable solution.

Something simple like a toilet cistern leaking into the bowl can cause a huge jump in consumption.

A leak is really easy to detect - take an accurate meter reading(including decimal places) before you go out, and again when you come home; obviously the readings should be the same.

ela

zermattbusby wrote: »

United Utilities say we have used a total of 191 cubic meters of water in 12 months, adding the other charges ie standing charge, sewerage, surface water. The final bill comes to £750.28 per year (£62.50 per month) however 191 x £1.12 = £213.92 How can this be right ? surely the water supplied should make up the bulk of the bill. Please any ideas ?
BTW Small detached house, two adults, one teenager.

This does sound a lot of cubic meters. I used 98 CM in one year. On average £25 per month. If we were on rates it would be more than double this.

Quick run down: 7 baths, 7 dishwashers, 7 washers, 2 showers, 50 cups of tea per week.

I dont skimp on water, but never wash the car and have a water butt for garden watering. We are out most of the day though.

Rab19

South East Water have just sent us a bill for £456.07!!!

Turns out they 'forgot' to generate a bill for last year, so even though we were paying by Direct Debit, it wasn't enough & they've slapped it ALL onto this years bill, quadrupling our monthly payment.

That CAN'T be right, surely????

Why should I now have to suffer financially because of their incompetance??? She even said I should have phoned up if I wasn't paying the bill - I told her I was paying DD every month so as far as I was concerned I was. She then said 'fair enough, but . . .' - NO!!! It's NOT fair enough - it's bloody outrageous!

There surely has to be something I can do - they can't bill me, realise they've cocked up & slap it all on a year later, can they?


Rab

Cardew

Rab19 wrote: »

South East Water have just sent us a bill for £456.07!!!

Turns out they 'forgot' to generate a bill for last year, so even though we were paying by Direct Debit, it wasn't enough & they've slapped it ALL onto this years bill, quadrupling our monthly payment.

That CAN'T be right, surely????

Why should I now have to suffer financially because of their incompetance??? She even said I should have phoned up if I wasn't paying the bill - I told her I was paying DD every month so as far as I was concerned I was. She then said 'fair enough, but . . .' - NO!!! It's NOT fair enough - it's bloody outrageous!

There surely has to be something I can do - they can't bill me, realise they've cocked up & slap it all on a year later, can they?


Rab

£456 is a big amount to have underpaid, your DD must be tiny - or your total bill huge!

Presumably you are on a meter?

They are within their rights to charge you the full amount as you haven't suffered financially - indeed you have had an interest free loan and will get one for a further year.

That said, it would be normal I would have thought for SE Water to make a gesture for their incompetance by reducing the bill say 10-20%.

I would put your case to the Consumer Council for Water for their opinion. See:

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.118

mazzy_f

Have just received my unmetered bill from Wessex water : £508.59. This was made up by : Water supply = £254.03
Standing charge = £7.00
Sewerage = £240.56
Standing charge= £7.00
We have a small 3 bed house and were told we wouldn't save much with a meter. My elderly parents have been charged £530 and they only have a 2 bed house. Why do we have to pay standing charges on top of these ridiculous prices? OFWAT states the average household is paying £312. I've yet to find anyone paying this "average" amount!

Cardew

mazzy_f wrote: »

Have just received my unmetered bill from Wessex water : £508.59. This was made up by : Water supply = £254.03
Standing charge = £7.00
Sewerage = £240.56
Standing charge= £7.00
We have a small 3 bed house and were told we wouldn't save much with a meter. My elderly parents have been charged £530 and they only have a 2 bed house. Why do we have to pay standing charges on top of these ridiculous prices? OFWAT states the average household is paying £312. I've yet to find anyone paying this "average" amount!

Welcome to the forum.

Who told you you wouldn't save much with a meter?

Water charges vary across the country and unfortunately the South West have the highest charges in the country.

Anyway why not change to a meter and see how much it costs?(the meter is fitted free)

If it doesn't work out cheaper you can change back to your current system within 12 months - so you have nothing to lose.

Your elderly parents might be eligble for the social charge?

Rab19

Thanks for replying Cardew - I've been on to them again & it turns out that when we moved in back in October 2006, they charged us for the pro-rata year & set up a DD for it, but not till June last year (even though I phoned them & told them we were the new owners when we moved in) and that the DD over this last year had been based on that figure due to a new bill not having been generated.

It turns out we should be paying around half of what our current bill is, which would have been double what their direct debit set up was.

I don't mind paying for a service I receive, I just cannot stand incompetence and people trying to wriggle out of admitting they were wrong - trying to lay the blame onto me instead!

Grrrrr - I feel a bit better now & will definitely investigate your link - thank you very much!


Rab x x

rockpeblar

Having lived in the Southwest all of my life I grew up with very high water bills and even when we moved into a house with a meter we were still looking at monthly bills around £45.
Last May we moved to Perth, Australia and took a rental property in September which had its own pool. Due to the hottest summer for 30 years we have been topping up the pool on a weekly basis and watering the gardens twice a week. I was concerned as to the size of our potential water bill after all this usage and was extremely pleased when it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. Now I should explain that the property has its own septic tank and the landlord is responsible for the water rates so we only have to pay for the water that is used, but our bill for the 6 months was less than £50!!!
As you are probably aware we don't have a lot of water over here and Perth actually built a desalination plant which came on line late last year which produces a million litres/day but water is so cheap that people will happily have their sprinklers on in the middle of the afternoon and land developers are probably one of the top wasters when it comes to water use.
I know this info is not much help for those who still have to pay the bills in the UK but I thought water companies were ripping us off, now I KNOW they were.
As a side issue, a litre of unleaded costs the equivalent of 60p at the moment so another example of over taxing in the UK.

nickynic206

well, has anyone got any idea as to what I can do about this then?? I received a bill / statements from united utilities about my new payments this yr, they stated that my monthly paymnets have gone up from £10.11 per month to £36.12 per month, I range them and they tolds me this is because i havent paid enough for last year....SO WHY NOT INFORM ME ABOUT THIS AND WHY THE HELL DID THEY SEND ME A STATEMENT CONFIRMING THESE WERE THE PAYMENTS FOR THE YEAR 2007 - 2008.
There is apparently nothing I cxanb do now, I have to pay this wopping payment of £36.12 when its all their fault for sending me the confirmation statement for last yr @£10.11 per month, they need the extra money that was not paid in last yr, I am fuming!! can anyone help.