Water Bills questions and comment

Tahlula_2

Help! I have happily told my friend with 4 kids, a lodger with a kid and a cat and dog that she can change her unwanted water meterback to bills after reading this in Martin's book - she's tried to tell her water board but they are saying it's not possible. She didn't ask for the meter and they did fit it after she moved in. Their argument is that you can only switch back if you asked for it and change your mind but not if you didn't ask for it - surely that's worse!!!!! Does she have any recourse at all with this? It's crippling her and her kids are boys so I don't want them too smelly ha ha! Thanks for any advice guys.

seaglimpses

At the end of Dec '03 we discovered that South West Water had made an administrative error on my account and had not been collecting enoungh money from my account to cover my usage. We arranged a to pay £50 a month to cover our usage and the arrears as we couldn't afford to pay them off. Just 6 months later they have come back to us saying that £50 isn't good enough and they have increased it to £75 (even though we told them before we could not afford more than £50). We have already paid a third of the arreas in the 6 month period, which as I said were a result of their error.

My question is, are they able to alter this agreement after only 6 months? Many thanks!

seaglimpses

Just got my water bill - in 3 months the two of us have racked up a bill of £140!!!!! ??? How is this possible!!!!!

LincsLad_3

Just got my water bill - in 3 months the two of us have racked up a bill of £140!!!!! ??? How is this possible!!!!!

Have you read the meter yourself to check the water company's figures?

Do you have a leak on 'your side' of the meter?

seaglimpses

Hi Lonclad - yes, have checked all that I'm afraid This usage works out to £560 a year!!

System

2 of us living in a 4-bedroom house near Market Harborough Leics were paying £25 to Severn Trent for water & £39 to Anglian for sewerage, a total of £64 per month...
Switched to a water metre & now pay TOTAL of £18 per month, a saving of £46 per month, £336 per year... ::)

seejay_3

I moved into my council house last year and set up a weekly budget account with Anglian Water (as I did at my previous address). They reckoned at £8 a week initally; but I was shocked to receive my first quarterly bill for TWO accounts stating I was in credit on one but £77.90 in debit on the other! It turns out I have TWO meters - one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. But the budget account only covered one.... so I had to phone them and ask them to transfer the credit onto the debited account. They then said to cover both accounts I'd need to increase my payments to £9, which I did. However, my bills were always the same - one in credit and one in debit. The final straw came when they reckoned I'd need to pay £18 a WEEK to cover both accounts! I decided to check the meter readings on the bills and discovered they'd estimated both readings and they were well over what I'd been using. They've now been recalculated (correctly) and my payments REDUCED to £5 per week. My fault for not checking but I thought I'd just point out that it's definitely worth doing your own readings!

jmcqup

Hello,

I enquired with Southern Water about having a meter installed in my 2 bedroom (purpose built) flat and was quickly informed that is was not possible.

As I am 1 person and travel frequently, I have no doubt that I would save millions with a meter... Is the intial refusal the 'standard line' or is it common that flats do are 'impractical' for having a water meter installed?

What to do? ??? ???

thanks

james

Aztec_2

I have now checked it's the right meter and checked for a leak and it's neither of those - does anyone know if it's possible that the flat above me are running off my meter in error? They are heavy users (we aren't) and their meter reads less than half of ours! South West Water now think our annual consumption is over £500!!!! Making us heavy users for a family of 4 - and there is only 2 of us!!!!!  :-/

I work for Southern Water as a leakage Inspector. The answer to your question is yes a meter can be addressed to the wrong flat.
Go outside (with your recent statement) check the meter code on the meter to the one on the statement, when you see the meter that matches the number on your statement turn the stop tap to the off position.
Check your cold water kitchen sink tap, if you have no water then this is your meter, if you are still supplied return back outside (leaving the tap running) and check both meters to make sure it is the other meter which is turning. I say this because it is quite possible that your stop tap maybe letting water through still even though it is in the off position in which case it should be replaced, contact your water supplier.
If you find that it is the wrong meter you are being billed for contact your supplier and ask for a district Inspector to visit you to sort the problem out.

Aztec_2

Hello,

I enquired with Southern Water about having a meter installed in my 2 bedroom (purpose built) flat and was quickly informed that is was not possible.

As I am 1 person and travel frequently, I have no doubt that I would save millions with a meter... Is the intial refusal the 'standard line' or is it common that flats do are 'impractical' for having a water meter installed?

What to do?  ???  ???

thanks

james

It is quite possible that your flat is supplied water through a common supply. In laymans terms that means your supply is split after the stop tap at the boundary or in the garden of your or one of neigbouring properties and maybe supplying other premises from the same supply. This means if they fitted a meter at the boundary and removed the old stop tap you would be billed for everyones water usage.
They can put you in a seperate supply so that you could have your own meter, but to install a new supply often costs more than £1000 for the customer.