Water Bills questions and comment

merrydance

Hello

We pay £83 for 10months so £830 per year. We live in a 4 bed end semi, nothing special. Have just had a water meter fitted, Fingers crosssed it will be cheaper.

Sharon_O'Neill

Hi, I am in the same position as you I pay £25.50 a month.
I live in a one bedroom flat, 2 taps, shower only, no bath, washing machine only no dishwasher. Do not have a car to clean. I am on a water meter and despite still ringing Southern Water and saying I am paying the same as people who water their gardens, clean their cars, have dishwasher and 4 bathrooms I am paying the same, how can this be???

They are incredibly unhelpful but I feel I am being royally over charged. Does anyone know if there is an ombudsman to take this too???

Cardew

Sharon_O'Neill wrote: »

Hi, I am in the same position as you I pay £25.50 a month.
I live in a one bedroom flat, 2 taps, shower only, no bath, washing machine only no dishwasher. Do not have a car to clean. I am on a water meter and despite still ringing Southern Water and saying I am paying the same as people who water their gardens, clean their cars, have dishwasher and 4 bathrooms I am paying the same, how can this be???

They are incredibly unhelpful but I feel I am being royally over charged. Does anyone know if there is an ombudsman to take this too???

Welcome to the forum.


If you are metered you need to know how much water you are using to determine if you are being overcharged.


You can see the charges here: https://www.southernwater.co.uk/metered-charges


A single person on average uses 55 cubic metres(m3) a year. You can see from the above link that would cost £283.16 pa i.e. £23.60 a month.


So you do not appear to be overcharged.

_Anna_

Dear all, I moved into a flat in the middle of October and applied for a single person water tariff. United Utilities that is the water provider told me that they can give me a single person tariff only if they cannot install an water meter and they will send an engineer to investigate this. Since there was a queue an engineer visited the flat only in January and he confirmed that they cannot fit an water meter. Today United Utilities sent me a letter where they say that they will give me a single person tariff since 5th January (the day when the engineer visited the flat). I checked the leaflet the engineer gave me and it says "when we receive your application we'll change your account details so you will pay an assessed charge from the date we decided your property could not be metered".
Does anyone know whether I can dispute this? I am a single tenant in the property since the middle of October and I cannot understand why I can get a discounted tariff since January only. Moreover, I had applied to the single person discount in the middle of November and it's the United Utilities responsibility (not mine) that they sent an engineer in January only.
I would be grateful if someone could clarify this issue.
Thank you.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

It was my understanding that all companies backdated assessed charges to the date you applied for a meter.

I cannot see anything on the United Utilities website, but this from my company's(Severn Trent) website.

When you opt for assessed volume charges, the start date for the new way of charging will be the date of your original application for a meter

I suggest you contact The Consumer Council for Water http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

satori

A single person on average uses 55 cubic metres(m3) a year. You can see from the above link that would cost £283.16 pa i.e. £23.60 a month.


So you do not appear to be overcharged.[/QUOTE]

Good to know. I use about 12 cubic meters per semester if I shower at the gym (no washing machine, no car). I was wondering how it compared as when I was living in houseshares where the landlords paid the utility bills, I was always told I was using too much water (and heating the place too much). In fact my use is well below average :T I pay my bill 6-monthly, around £88.

Re not paying your bill, I once rented one of 21 flats in a building (reconverted offices). There were no individual water meters, so the water company invoiced the landlords (this was in our tenancy agreement)... who did not pay the bill (or the mortgage!). The water company would pop in regularly to see if the landlords were around, or if any of the tenants had new contact details for the landlords (we had the same they did, and could never get hold of anyone, nor a reply to any letters), and tell us that if this carried on they would cut the water off. Then the building was repossessed by the mortgage lenders. The landlords did not pay the water bill for a minimum of 2 years. Must have been quite a lot of money.

Cursed

Forgotten I had posted this - months later the result is that I finally managed to winkle out of Anglian Water that all these years they had had me on entirely the wrong tariff - and had put me on the wrong kind of repayment plan too without ever telling me. NEVER accept being on an 'instalment plan' - it means you will never ever pay off your debt, even though they constantly tell you it does. You need to be on a 'payment scheme' which clears the debt AND pays your bills. It took Anglian Water four years to tell me this - four years in which I had endless arguments with them over my water usage and bills - the stress was overwhelming - in fact I ended up in hospital with cancer twice because of it - but I FINALLY got to talk to someone with half a brain cell and an ounce of compassion who put it all right and after my yelling and screaming at them for three weeks they finally removed all the bad marks against my credit file - which they were refusing to do even after they admitted they had been charging me incorrectly for four years. I got there in the end but God Almighty the cost on your health is appalling.

BobbyT26

Can I change my water supplier like I can for electric and gas?

Cardew

BobbyT26 wrote: »

Can I change my water supplier like I can for electric and gas?

No - afraid not!

AshleyBones

Sorry if this question has been asked/answered previously on this Forum but I've not been able to find anything.

We have just had our first metered water bill from South East Water. I project that we will be paying around 50% more per year for our water.

South East Water installed the meters across this area (TN22) last year and as far as I'm aware gave us no choice. I was under the impression it had been made a legal requirement, however, I have found some info online suggesting that this is not the case, viz a copy of a letter purporting to be from DEFRA, dated April 2014, to a consumer and stating,

"The government has no plans to bring forward water metering. No water company is ever required to introduce compulsory metering, even if it is in an area of severe water stress."

Source: http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/

Q1: Is metering a statutory requirement?

Q2: Could I have refused to go onto a metered tariff?

Q3: Can I ask to be returned to a non-metered tariff?

Info:
- Three bedroomed semi-detached; two adults.
- First 3 months consumption was 56cu/m.

Thanks.