Moving House In Bournemouth - long post

kragen_ironfist

The letting agents from whom I currently rent, have informed me that my Landlord is planning to redevlop the property in which I currently reside. I have no timescale yet for when I will have to vacate apart from sometime this year, although I have been promised a minimum of a months notice.

So I am trying to get ahead of the game by scouting out possible places to move.

The problem is that I have had it quite cushy in that since I left home at 23 (7 years ago now), every where I have lived has had all or most of the bills included

Now looking around at the current housing market in Bournemouth it is obvious that my "Bills Included" lifestyle is coming to an end so now I am having to work out how much moving to a new home is going to cost (ignore the actual cost of moving - I have many friends with vans :P )
I am concentrating on the cost of living in my new home where ever it may be.

I am assuming that anywhere I move I will pay roughly the same amount for electric as I am now (£1 coin meter roughly £30/month) this includes cooking but not heating which is included in rent along with water and sewerage. So for arguments sake I shall assume £30/month also for gas (if appropriate) or clsoer to £60/month for electric only properties.

Water is a bit harder to work out - I have been to Bournemouth and West hants Water's site and got the 2010/11 charges for supply, but my sewerage will be under Wessex Water (have their charges too :P) the difficult part is knowing how the charges are applied.

If there is a water meter fitted to a prospective property, it is easier to work out as there is a rough average guidline usage amount of 5 cubic metres of water per person per month, the problem I have is where properties are still under Water Rates, as rateable values seem to be a law unto them selves.

Going through the water companies charges, I have the following information for the financial year beginning Apr 2010

Bournemouth And West Hants Water (Supply)
Standing charge £22.50 pa
Charge per £ of Rateable Value £0.6457 pa

Wessex Water (Sewerage)
Standing charge £7 pa
Charge per £ of Rateable Value £1.2785 pa

on Bournemouth & West Hants Water's site they also give an example with a Rateable Value of £225, I have applied Wessex Water's sewearge charges to the same example and come up with the following information.

+ Supply = £22.50 + (£225*0.6457) = £167.78 pa /12 = £13.98/month
+ Sewerage = £7.00 + (225*1.2785) = £294.66 pa /12 = £23.97/month
=====================================================
= Total = £29.50 + (225*1.9242) = £462.44 pa /12 = £38.54/month

as far as rates go do these figures seem about right

also if anyone could give a rough idea of what the Rateable values round here are like I would be most grateful

(for example - Joe Blogs lives in a 3 Bed Semi - Rateable Value is £xyz)

kragen_ironfist

also is there any way of finding out the Rateable Value of a property without having to phone the water company every time I see a place i like the look of?