help...water bill is £4000 a year.

finlander

Ok brief summary

1. moved into our house 4 years ago.

2. water meter installed. We have been paying £4000 a year for two adults both working fulltime

3. essex and suffolk have sent us letters claiming a leak on property.

4. I have searched and searched and found none.

5 recently had our first baby and what with maternity leave and losing her salary I made a fuss

6 water company installed a flow meter and asked us to record water usage. we did this and according to them it showed average usage.I asked them why we were paying so much and they accused me of having a leak which I had mended!

7 I got angry and and they agreed to instal a flow meter for a month to prove the meter was correct.

8. was contacted by the water company 3 days ago to say the flow meter showed average consumption ex cept.. ready..sit dow... on the 9th June between 7pm and 9pm the next day a flow of 14000 litres.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I asked them to explain and they said we must have left a tap on... I said dont be stupid and they said tough... I asked them what my options are and they said that I should monitor thr meter each day .. when I ponited out that if I had another spike they would just say it was my fault they agreed....


I dont know what to do now. I dont think it sounds like Im paying for my neighbours as it was aone off spike oin one 24htr period. The only other thing I can think is that there is apumping station opposite my house owned by anglian water. I wondered if that might be taking water from us ,, alarge flushing (I dont know Im grasping at straws). I rang anglian water but they said they dont have access to any records on the pumping house but agreed the 14000 lts in 24 hours was ridiculous...

Essex and suffoldk have absolutely confirmed that my property has no leaks.... what do I do... Im desperate!!!!!:mad:

finlander

forgot to add.. the conversation with essex and suffolk finished with them saying...'not our problem'....:mad:

Sambucus_Nigra

Turn all the water off in your house and see if the meter is still whizzing round - and video it.

finlander

when????...... thats the problem in one month it was 24hr spike...how do i know when its going to happen..or shall I turn the water off for one month.......If it does keep spinning then they will say its a tap on again....

Gothicfairy

What kind of meter is it ?

victor2

finlander wrote: »

8. was contacted by the water company 3 days ago to say the flow meter showed average consumption ex cept.. ready..sit dow... on the 9th June between 7pm and 9pm the next day a flow of 14000 litres.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I asked them to explain and they said we must have left a tap on...

That's about 2 litres a second and is according to their flow meter. Ask them what size tap you would need to draw that much water through, and is it even possible to pass that much through your supply pipe? I'd escalate the problem to a more senior manager.

finlander

WATER METER IS A MECHANICAL ONE BUT THE FLOW METER IS ELECTRONIC....

I ASKED ALL THOSE QUESTIONS AND THE ANSWER WAS... DONT KNOW..NOT OUR PROBLEM....!!!

SORRY BOUT CPS..TYPED THIS FAR AND REALISED THEY WERE on.............:(

finlander

the bloke Im talking to says he is the manager.... are ofwat any good... who is the onus on to sort this out me or the water company and lastly.... this has been going on for 4 years! can i get my money back........

finlander

my calculations say one liter every 6.1 seconds!

Gothicfairy

OK anyway :
First off make an appointment to have the meter flow tested ( yes I know it seem silly but you need a guy there from the water board to say yes that is your meter, yes that is your recording and to stand there and say it does not record once the supply is off etc)
Then once that visit has confirmed your msn and the flow meter is showing normal adc etc write to the water company as a CROSS complaint.
Confirm the results of their own visit and ask them how they come to the figure of the bill and also ask for a FULL statement of account to show readings and ask them to confirm the actual readings they have taken.

They have to reply within 10 days and it must then be in writing : now 2 things can happen> 1 the person writing the letter doesn't want to put there name to something so actually works through the problem ( trust me that does happen often) and gets a meter replacement booked and goes from there or you get a standard reply.
If you get the standard reply with no help the very next step is CCW and OFWAT and cc the water company in.

You need to work out what is being recorded and by getting their flow test you can say 100% that they confirmed the meter does not over record or spin with no flow. Then it is down to there being a leak or drain on the supply.

victor2

If that much water is genuinely going through your supply, then I can see them saying it's not their problem. Any neighbouring property has something like a swimming pool or runs something like a jet wash every now and then? There would have to be a pipe branching off somewhere between the meter and where the main pipe goes into your house for that. If there's no sign of any work having been done after the property was built, I'm not sure how you'd check that. Know anyone with a metal detector?

2 hours is 2*60*60 seconds = 7200 seconds, so my calculation makes it 1 litre in just over 0.5 seconds!