Water Meter £50 a month, a dam Joke

emmaroids

there used to be an old saying that was told to someone who smells it goes,,,,`get a bath, water doesent cost anything`

how wrong is that now lol

it anoyed me aswell cos the water boards have sold resovours for housing development, they lose an amount of water equal to lake windermere EVERY DAY through leaks and give themselves hugh pay rises,
and who foots the bill for all this??

WE do.:mad:

Kzlnd

We moved from a 2 bed flat, 2 adults with water meter to 3 bed semi d, 2 adults not metered.
We were paying over £100+ a month with the water meter for 2 years with Yorkshire Water. No leaks. :mad: :mad:
We're now paying £17 a month without the water meter :beer:

Cardew

Kzlnd wrote:

We moved from a 2 bed flat, 2 adults with water meter to 3 bed semi d, 2 adults not metered.
We were paying over £100+ a month with the water meter for 2 years with Yorkshire Water. No leaks. :mad: :mad:
We're now paying £17 a month without the water meter :beer:

You, or Yorkshire water, have made a mistake.
There is no way on earth that you will ever pay £1,200+ a year on a meter for 2 people in a flat- without a leak.
£100 every 6 months is more like it.

If you were paying that you were paying for everyone elses water in the block.

Cardew

rmg1 wrote:

I know this is a long-shot, but thought it worth an ask.
My parents-in-law live in a 3-bed bungalow with a water meter. There's only the two of them, but sometimes they have a lot of visitors (they have rather a large family). When they first moved in (about 5 years ago), the knew about the water meter and asked if it could be removed. They were told it couldn't as the 12 month contract had expired, but the contract was with the previous residents. I know they should have done something sooner, but they are both OAP's and "didn't want to make a fuss".
Anyone have any suggestions as they are terrified of using too much water and being hammered with a large bill? They pay monthly on a pre-payment card through yorkshire Water (or whoever they are now!).

You should re-assure your parents-in-law that they are almost certainly paying much less on a meter than they would on the old RV system for a 3 bed bungalow.

If you can get hold of the Rateable Value from an old bill you can work it out. Or check with neighbours in similar properties.

Kzlnd

Cardew wrote:

You, or Yorkshire water, have made a mistake.
There is no way on earth that you will ever pay £1,200+ a year on a meter for 2 people in a flat- without a leak.
£100 every 6 months is more like it.

If you were paying that you were paying for everyone elses water in the block.

We were certainly in the last year although charges were increased yet again, not sure how I made a mistake? I took regular readings, I know how to read the meter, checked my readings against YW actual readings (not many of those! however). We had quarterly bills of around £304 :eek:

We had a leak but it was waste water from the shower flooding our hallway ahh what fun that was, other than that we had no leaks and w.meter often still when we checked.
I often checked the other meters aswell as our own, it did occur to me that some plonker may have hooked our meter up to everyone elses apartment (I come accross this at work as we deal with housebuilders/new builds, seems it's not all that rare!) but I don't think that was the case, certainly not covering EVERY other apartment at least :rotfl:
Other meters were in use and I checked others meter readings to make sure usage was being recorded.. It didn't make sense to me, we were apparently using more than some schools with 800+ children for goodness sake! YW wouldn't accept anything other than we used the water, although I didn't overly push the cheking of the meter - Not sure why, I usually would have argued the point and had something, if only a check done.. even more so because of the huge bills.

I would not wish to live in a propety with a water meter again, I know how YW overcharge (they tried it on with us when we first moved in) and meters which 'do not record correctly' and have to be exchanged. I cannot tell you how 'excited' I was at moving to a place without a water meter :rotfl: Bless £17 a month

seven-day-weekend

In my house in the UK - no meter, low rateable value - less than £150 per year (paid in six monthly instalments.

We had an investment property that my son lived in on his own for a while. High RV, water bill £600 per year. Had meter fitted - bills went to less than £100 per year.

Both the above were with Severn Trent.

So it depends on how many are in the house and the rateable value.

Here in Spain, my water charges (in the driest country in Europe) are 7E a year!

Cardew

Kzlnd wrote:

We were certainly in the last year although charges were increased yet again, not sure how I made a mistake? I took regular readings, I know how to read the meter, checked my readings against YW actual readings (not many of those! however). We had quarterly bills of around £304 :eek:

We had a leak but it was waste water from the shower flooding our hallway ahh what fun that was, other than that we had no leaks and w.meter often still when we checked.
I often checked the other meters aswell as our own, it did occur to me that some plonker may have hooked our meter up to everyone elses apartment (I come accross this at work as we deal with housebuilders/new builds, seems it's not all that rare!) but I don't think that was the case, certainly not covering EVERY other apartment at least :rotfl:
Other meters were in use and I checked others meter readings to make sure usage was being recorded.. It didn't make sense to me, we were apparently using more than some schools with 800+ children for goodness sake! YW wouldn't accept anything other than we used the water, although I didn't overly push the cheking of the meter - Not sure why, I usually would have argued the point and had something, if only a check done.. even more so because of the huge bills.

I would not wish to live in a propety with a water meter again, I know how YW overcharge (they tried it on with us when we first moved in) and meters which 'do not record correctly' and have to be exchanged. I cannot tell you how 'excited' I was at moving to a place without a water meter :rotfl: Bless £17 a month

This is a money saving site and the purpose of threads like this is to give typical costs.

The problem with your initial post is that people will think it is possible to have a bill for well over £1,200 for 2 people in a flat on a meter without a leak, or you paying for other people's water. I just can't imagine why you thought it possible to 'use' that amount of water - didn't you ask a neighbour?

Nearly all couples will be better off if they have a meter unless they have a property with a really low Rateable Value. You might well pay less than £17 a month in your new property with a meter. You can try it for a year and swop back if it doesn't work out.

space_rider

I am in ST area too. 5 of us in house, 2 teenage girls and a young one that has bath but not filled to top. I am using 2.5 units per week and paying £14 per month. I don`t waste water. Dishwasher on every other day, 4 loads of washing per week. Don`t use hosepipe to water car. Can`t say how frugal my daughters are with the water but based on our usage have to assume they being good!! When I wasn`t on meter was paying £43 per month based on rateable value.

Kzlnd

Cardew wrote:

This is a money saving site and the purpose of threads like this is to give typical costs.

The problem with your initial post is that people will think it is possible to have a bill for well over £1,200 for 2 people in a flat on a meter without a leak, or you paying for other people's water. I just can't imagine why you thought it possible to 'use' that amount of water - didn't you ask a neighbour?

Nearly all couples will be better off if they have a meter unless they have a property with a really low Rateable Value. You might well pay less than £17 a month in your new property with a meter. You can try it for a year and swop back if it doesn't work out.

It is possible to have bills of £1200 for 2 people
I didn't accept we had 'used' such a vast amount of water but when YW refuse to accept anything else and I receive a red letter - I pay (not that they could turn off my water supply for non payment, illegal) rather than wasting more of my money calling them and going around in circles.
I'm aware of the issues, overcharging, exchanged meters and massive rebates given (not without a fight) back to customers so I expect one of those was the issue with us.
I do accept that our charges were not 'typical' as I said previously, our bills were more than some schools with hundreds of kids using the water!

However the OP posted with regards to the excessive costs of their water due to being supplied by water meter, other people have provided their costs just as I have.

I wouldn't try a water meter for a year or any period of time, I don't think they're reliable with previous experience and I'd certainly hate the introduction of water meters in every property - I wouldn't want to be stung again.

lostcrusader

I am a single bloke and have been on a meter since 1999.

It is now £11 a month rather than the £400 a year that it would have been by now.

I am on the the Solo scheme where you pay zero charges but higher pence per unit for water and sewage.

It is ideal for single, no garden hose users. It allows 90m3 of water If i remember rightly.

I bathe daily, 4 washing up times, washing machine, and shower.


Just an idea for some.

:beer:

By the way, If you have soak aways in your garden and the guttering around the home discharges the rain direct to the soak away you may be allowed to claim a discount on water bill as the rain water is not being treated via the sewage system. Water butts to collect also gets a discount.