Water Bills questions and comment

Gothicfairy

John1951 wrote: »

Please excuse me if I've missed this in previous replies or other threads - I'm new to forums. I was amazed and annoyed by a telephone call I had with my local water company, whom I shall not name, but I suspect this applies to all of them. I had noticed that my rate per cubic metre of water had increased on 1st April, and on 1st April last year as well. Are they taking the ****....!!?? I was sure I had not had any notification of the price increases, and rang to ask what was their normal notice method. With the arrogance borne of an area monopoly of supply, I was told that they only use the press - TV and papers - to notify price increases, and do not send letter direct to their customers, nor print notifications on bills. When I questioned this in the light of gas and electricity companies being forced into greater clarity and openness by telling customers of their best tariffs, I was just told, rather bluntly, "We don't have tariffs." I am amazed that OFWAT allows this high-handed approach. Has anyone had any experience trying to change the rules, or can they get away with daylight robbery - +4.2% this year, +7.0% last - without having to tell customers first, as other utilities have to?

Water bills go up ( or down even sometimes) every year on the 1st of April like the council tax..I thought everyone knew that but your first bill would have advised you of the new amount and to be honest it makes no difference really as you can't change suppliers and as they rightly say there are no tariffs to move to.

I will say that it is all agreed with OFWAT and based on a 5 year plan so any increase is dealt with years before it actually hits your bills and if they were to send a letter to every customer that would only make a further increase in the bills.

John1951

Many thanks for that - shows how much notice I've been taking! Sounds like a cosy little cartel in need of a shake-up.....

lara72

Can someone please advise on these new water bills. I was got a meter in to save money last year as only 2 of us live in our house, and it went down from £45 per month to £26 on the meter, fantastic i thought what a saving. I have just go my bill for this year and it has gone back up £40 and no idea what the bill is going on about. We are hardly home due to long work shifts, we are not great over users of the water, we have no fancy pools, ponds etc dont wash cars at the house, so how can this now have doubled nearly this year? any help would be greatly appreciated.

Gothicfairy

lara72 wrote: »

Can someone please advise on these new water bills. I was got a meter in to save money last year as only 2 of us live in our house, and it went down from £45 per month to £26 on the meter, fantastic i thought what a saving. I have just go my bill for this year and it has gone back up £40 and no idea what the bill is going on about. We are hardly home due to long work shifts, we are not great over users of the water, we have no fancy pools, ponds etc dont wash cars at the house, so how can this now have doubled nearly this year? any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bill or payment plan ?

A bill is based on usage and should be worked out with a meter reading (be it est or actual ) and if that reading is wrong then the bill will of course be wrong

If it is a payment plan then it might well be based on your usage as you have not supplied enough info for anyone to help you answer that you need to go back to the water company and ask how they worked it out..or give us something to go on :

Did your payment plan cover your usage ?
Where you in arrears ?
What is your usage ?

village_saver

We have lived in the same property for 25 years & out of the blue have received a mailing from the water company to tell us a meter will be installed shortly. Obviously we have not requested this & would rather not have one - can we refuse?

Cardew

village_saver wrote: »

We have lived in the same property for 25 years & out of the blue have received a mailing from the water company to tell us a meter will be installed shortly. Obviously we have not requested this & would rather not have one - can we refuse?

A water meter can be fitted, but at the moment it doesn't mean that you will be charged on a metered basis. Although there are some areas where water meter charging is mandatory.

Although there is much speculation that the Government are to make metering compulsory for everyone.

deanos

village_saver wrote: »

We have lived in the same property for 25 years & out of the blue have received a mailing from the water company to tell us a meter will be installed shortly. Obviously we have not requested this & would rather not have one - can we refuse?

Sounds like they are extended metering, they will fit the meter then in a few months time take a reading and tell you if you would be better off or not on a meter.

Of course if you sell the next occupier automatically goes onto the meter

nadmaj

hi

I.ve received my waterbill for the 6 months £188.00 for 3 kids a d 2 adults and I thinks its a lot as £100 is just the charges so I was wondering if there were any way I could reduce the sweage cost - someone mentioned earlier in the thread that if I could use such devices and demonstrate that less water goes back as sweage I could reduce the sewage costs and by demonstrating this by a waterbutt and hozelock system - putting a squash bottle in the toilet cistern - is there any info regarding this - thanks

HappyMJ

nadmaj wrote: »

hi

I.ve received my waterbill for the 6 months £188.00 for 3 kids a d 2 adults and I thinks its a lot as £100 is just the charges so I was wondering if there were any way I could reduce the sweage cost - someone mentioned earlier in the thread that if I could use such devices and demonstrate that less water goes back as sweage I could reduce the sewage costs and by demonstrating this by a waterbutt and hozelock system - putting a squash bottle in the toilet cistern - is there any info regarding this - thanks

If you are using a water butt then you will be using less water outside and your sewerage costs will be lower. If you already have a low flush toilet then the squash bottle won't work and anyway it only saves 1 litre per flush. At £2 a cubic metre that would be 1,000 flushes to save £2. It'll probably save about £10 maybe £20 per year for 5 people in the house.

To save on sewerage you must use less water. If you have a swimming pool or use an extensive amount of outside water you can get a submeter to meter outside water usage which can then be deducted from your sewerage amount...but they already have an allowance for outside water usage so it probably won't make much difference.

I would be very happy with a £188 bill for 6 months for 5 people. That's cheap. How many cubic metres of water did they charge you for. A normal household not worrying too much about usage use about 1 cubic metre per person per week. Over 26 weeks 5 people would therefore use about 130 cubic metres and at an average cost of £2 a cubic metre that would be £260 plus standing charges of about £50 making a total bill of £310.

Cardew

nadmaj wrote: »

hi

I.ve received my waterbill for the 6 months £188.00 for 3 kids a d 2 adults and I thinks its a lot as £100 is just the charges so I was wondering if there were any way I could reduce the sweage cost - someone mentioned earlier in the thread that if I could use such devices and demonstrate that less water goes back as sweage I could reduce the sewage costs and by demonstrating this by a waterbutt and hozelock system - putting a squash bottle in the toilet cistern - is there any info regarding this - thanks

I think you have misunderstood about reduced sewerage costs.

Water companies assume that between 90% and 95% of the water you receive returns to the sewer. The 5% to 10% goes on the garden or evaporation.

If you can prove that less than 90% of the supplied water goes into the sewer, then you can get a reduction in your sewerage charge. This might be because you have a large garden that you water frequently, or perhaps a swimming pool or lake.

However proving it is difficult unless you buy a water company approved metering system that measures the water not entering the sewer.

The devices you mention(the waterbutt/squash bottle etc) just reduce the amount of water you use - not the proportion that enters the sewer.