Water Bill 1000£ A Year - Ripoff!

uredzz

Hi.

Dunno if this is the right place on this site for this mesage.

My mother is paying 1000£ per year for water rates. This astronomical figure has come from installing a water meter. The house is only small, 2 bedroomed. I know other people on her street pay half what she does. But she says that theres no going back once you've had 1 installed.

Theres a chance that she is somehow paying for next doors water supply. As in between tenants, when the house was unsold for 6 months, there was a noticable decrease in water usage. But she says theres no way of proving that.

I hate to think of my ma getting ripped off, anyone have any advice or is there no option?

Thanks

towseriv

There are ways of proving it, call the water comapany who installed and ask them to check. It should be easy enough for them to do. Also I know severn trent say you can revert back within one year so there is a chance as long as you are within that period.

Mistakes do happen. My brother got a bill for..........£3,483. Why? Because the guy that installed themeter installed it to the feed for FIVE houses. The result was the meter was re-installed and as they had no way of proving what he had been using they started from scratch with nothing to pay.

Call them up as a concerned son if she won't call them herself. Initialy just enquiring but then to dispute the bill if you still think things are wrong.
Worst case is she has to pay it all, best case is she gets the bill halved or nullified.

cattie

I believe if you asked for a water meter to be installed then you change your mind within 12/18 months, depending on water company, you can asked to be changed back to paying water rates.

The first couple of water bills I received & paid after I moved to this house were apparently related not to mine, but my neighbours water meter. It was the water company themselves that realised the error & wrote to tell me I was in credit.

blackanchorage

Try turning off all the taps etc. in the house, and check if the water meter still shows flow. We got a big bill once, and it was because there was a leak - the cost of excess flow was refunded.

We moved to a house with a water meter, and with two kids, we're paying £40 a month - much more than before. Needless to say we can't ask for it to be uninstalled.

Regards, Roger

angelavdavis

Check the reference on the bill relates to the actual water meter installed at your mothers house - they often send bills to the wrong homeowners too.

deanos

You say she is paying £1000 for water a year so the meter must have been installed longer than 12 months ?

Best to ring the water co. and dispute the bill and check for leaks, and if its a terrace or council house its more than likely to have shared or joint supplies so ask a neighbour to turn there tap on and see if the meter moves, of course if its an internal meter this can be ruled out.