Water Bills questions and comment

jfawcett

Hi All,

Just thought I'd throw mine in...

I live in Devon. Apparently South West Water is the highest price in the country and they seem quite proud of the fact when I phoned them recently!

When I moved in to our 3 bedroomed semi the metered water bill was about £15/month then it went up to £23, then £28, then £30-something! We decided to enquire about this and they said they are just making up for underestimated charges. We now check the reading after each bill.

We've done two leak tests ourselves and had the guy with the overalls out to check too. Guess what, we are now told to expect the bills to rise to around £41/month from January!

I bet you think I have 20 teenage kids, my own car wash and help the firebrigade out by filling their trucks with water, but you'd be wrong. I am newly-wed with no kids, we use the shower once a day, have a new 'eco' washing machine, etc.

But, one ray of light in amongst this - the water company were doing some 'improvements' recently and posted the same letter through our door 3 weeks running, advising us that there may be interruptions of unknown length between 8am to 8pm (all day then) and even after the water returns we should 'run off' some water to get rid of the muck.

I promptly launch into what has probably been my most triumphant complaint to the water board and manage to get them to agree to:

1. 10 litres of pure water delivered for each week we are affected
2. 15 hours! run off time free of charge (not sure how this will be worked out)
3. the written promise that if the mank running through our shower, washing machine or other item causes anything to break or deteriate they will replace it free of charge

Got a thumbs up from the wife too as I'm normally so bad at complaining. Anyone else fancy crossing me? Bring it on.

JF

gushoneybun

Can anyone tell me about the vunerable household discount scheme?Apparently if you are on certain bebefits or have 3+ children and are on a meter you can get your bill capped.

A friend said she saw a which report on it?

Any info please anyone...especially if you have a URL so I can read up on it!

Many Thanks

buzz_2

I live in Sussex and find my water and waste bill extremely high, compared with work colleagues who live in a Thames water region.

This year my total bill for waste & water £513.00, based on the rateable value of a 3-bed house.

Spoke to OFWAT, who told me that because Sussex has a coastline we have to pay more to keep the beaches, etc clean.

Any comments?
Buzz ???

golddust_4

Here's a double whammy on saving on the water bill.

If like me you live in the Anglia Water area you may notice on your bill that your charged for water used AND sewerage costs. Anglia is (I think) the only water company not to have any coastline. As such they cannot dump waste water at sea and must clean waste water to the point that it can be released into rivers and waterways. This is expensive! And the customers pick up the bill. All water companies have a sewerage charge but Anglia's one is quite high.

Now comes the money saving part....
You can claim that your sewerage charge should be reduced. To qualify for this you need to demonstrate that you're able to return the sewer less water than you draw. I think the standard sewerage calculation is about 90%. Anyway, quite often claims are never checked up (so long as your claim is reasonable) anyway for example if you route your roof guttering to a water butt for the garden there is water not going to the sewer (take 10% off your sewerage). If you note that some of your water is hosepipes onto the garden again that isn't sewered. Any other plumbing feature to reduce waste water you may have again should be stated. Even a speculative reduction of water sewerage by 10% still adds up to a lot of money!
In many circumstances you need not even fit the modification, it would cost the water company more to send someone to inspect than the saving you're asking for so they just give you the discount!

Now to save on the water you draw!
Take a 1 litre orange squash bottle. Fill it to the absolute brim with water. Place it in the toilet cistern. You'll now save 1 litre on every flush! That's the cheap solution.
If you're replacing your toilet at the moment fit a dual flush cistern which has perhaps a 1-2 litre flush for fluids and a larger 5 litre flush for solids. This is the standard in many countries like Australia.

Birkby-bk454

Hi Newbie here.

Just semi retired and new to Martins tips heard him J Vine show I have already got a £300 phone for free and a better tariff. ;D

Now to save money on my Water Bills . I hope.
After using the handy calculator I found on the site I am sure I can save about £300 pa. by switching to a meter , however I cannot find my stop !!!!!! in the road.

Also ,I have a longish drive so would Yorkshire water have an excuse for saying no.

However , my stop !!!!!! for the house comes up in an outside boiler room , is it “done” to connect the meter there along with the gas and Electricity meters , it would be a lot easier than digging up the road.

Any advise would be appreciated

MarkyMarkD

Our meter was fitted in our downstairs toilet, as that is where the mains pipe comes into the house.

And they've fitted a tiny wire through the wall, then along the outside of the house to the side of the front gate, so they can remotely interrogate the meter (i.e. without having to enter the house).

All very nice.

chateau42

Our estimated unmetered £500 plus, actual metered £300. South West. Only 2 of us, for large families probably best to be unmetered, depends on size of house.  Changed to meter 9 years ago so not 100% sure of unmetered rate, just trying to help. You need to check your actual options.

kazzy

Just got our water bill for last 6 months.We have used 127units.Is this a lot for a family of 3 ina 3 bed house?? I have always thought our bills were way too high and have had meter checked etc etc.My mum has a tiny water bill,so i went and inspected her house.I flushed the loo in her house and her meter hardly moved.Whereas i my house it dances round merrily!!!.I'm sure it goes round too fast but they have checked it and say it's right.I still think we pay too much £45 pm.That's even with 20% reduction for having an irrigation system in our garden so that water is going back into the ground.
Water's more expensive than wine!!!.
When I told the girl on the phone that we had 2 showers a day (myself and hubby) and one bath(my daughter in the evening),she thought that was excessive.Am I too clean????LOL

By the way if you buy an irrigation system(hozelock etc.) ,you then apply for discount as your water is going back into the ground.I was amazed at how easily they did this and didn't evenn come round to check!!.

UKJess

gushoneybun wrote:

Can anyone tell me about the vunerable household discount scheme?Apparently if you are on certain bebefits or have 3+ children and are on a meter you can get your bill capped.

I found it for Yorkshire Water at http://www.yorkshirewater.co.uk/youraccount/vulnerab.html

Other companies have the same thing.

Looks like you have to be on benefit AND have 3+ under 16s

Jess

chicky77uk

The Anglian Water area actually includes 3,000km of coastline with beaches and estuaries!

Their charges may not be the lowest in the industry but the area covered is one of the driest and most sparsely populated in England which, therefore, results in higher infrastructure charges. It may be worth noting that they are ranked no. 1 in OFWAT'S Overall Performance Assessment of the whole of the UK water industry for the year 2003/04

ALL water companies charge for collection & disposal of your waste water (sewerage) except for, say Essex & Suffolk water who do not own any sewers.

A 10% allowance is given to all customers which is above average for the industry and generally covers garden watering etc for the average person.

Applications for sewerage abatements ARE checked and reviewed every 2 years.

You can claim an additional one-off allowance for watering a new lawn or for filling a pond or pool if you are on a meter but you may have to wait for further meter readings to be obtained so that the your water consumption can be compared to previous periods.

Regarding Surface Water Drainage, which is a separate charge to your waste water charge; attaching a hosepipe to your gutters will not qualify you for a discount. You need to ensure that NONE of your surface water enters the sewers, this includes run off from driveways etc which may enter the sewers via road drains.

If you aren't connected for SWD then you can get the charge removed by applying via a form, the charge is £30 per year regardless of whether you are a metered customer or pay via a rateable value.

Please excuse the long post, hopefully it may clarify the situation somewhat.

Regards, Chick x