Moving from 1 bedroom flat to 3 bedroom house – utility bill increases

fannyanna

Well as the title says we’re planning on moving from a 1 bedroom flat to a 3 bedroom house next year. I’m currently trying to work out roughly how much our utility bills will increase and was wondering if anyone could help me.

We pay £23.57 a month to the water company. I have no idea how much this will increase for a 3 bedroom house.

We pay £21 for our gas and £33 for our electricity every month. We actually overpay and normally end up with a refund every 6 months (just got back £150 for 6 months). I’m expecting the gas bill to increase (as there will be more property to heat up) but on the basis that it will just be me and my Husband I wouldn’t have thought the electricity bill would increase that much.

Also what should I expect to pay for buildings insurance? We live in a leasehold property so don’t have an individual buildings insurance policy. We pay £15.15 a month for contents and personal belongings insurance.

HappyMJ

fannyanna wrote: »

Well as the title says we’re planning on moving from a 1 bedroom flat to a 3 bedroom house next year. I’m currently trying to work out roughly how much our utility bills will increase and was wondering if anyone could help me.

We pay £23.57 a month to the water company. I have no idea how much this will increase for a 3 bedroom house. That should stay the same but if you use any water outside for watering the garden or playing about in the yard or washing the car then it will increase. It will also increase if the new shower is more powerful than your current one and/or the bath is bigger. According to my water company the average person uses 155 litres per day. People on a water meter tend to watch what they use and on average use less at 135 litres per day. People in flats use less due to no outside water usage. Multiply that by the number of people in your house and then by the rate on the bill.

We pay £21 for our gas and £33 for our electricity every month. We actually overpay and normally end up with a refund every 6 months (just got back £150 for 6 months). I’m expecting the gas bill to increase (as there will be more property to heat up) but on the basis that it will just be me and my Husband I wouldn’t have thought the electricity bill would increase that much.
It will increase as you are heating a larger space. By how much is difficult to work out unless you have monthly readings and know what your base usage is. Try finding a summer bill deducting the usage from the winter bill doubling the difference then adding the base usage back on. That should be close enough.

Also what should I expect to pay for buildings insurance? We live in a leasehold property so don’t have an individual buildings insurance policy. We pay £15.15 a month for contents and personal belongings insurance. Buildings insurance could be anything. It depends on the risks in your area.

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BitterAndTwisted

Whatever your utility bills are now, treble them. So very much on the costs of heating will be utterly dependent on how good the insulation is if any, the amount of drafts and whether the windows are double-glazed or not. There is practically no rule of thumb that I can think of.

motherofstudents

You don't say whether the water is metered or not. If it is not then the bill will depend on the rateable value of the house. We don't have a water meter because it would cost more than paying water rates at the moment. The other bills will obviously increase so I would put a bit more aside than you think it will be just so you have something to fall back on until you get to know how much you are using. If you pay your gas and electricity by monthly direct debit you may find they start you off on a low figure. When this happened to me, I rang them and said I wanted to pay more as I knew we would be using more than they said. Fortunately, it has worked out about right.

colli

We moved from a 1 bed flat to a 3 bed house and the utilities hardly changed . Our old flat was poorly insulated with old sash windows, wooden floors, draughty doors, high ceilings etc but the house is double glazed with carpets, normal height ceilings so the cost to heat has worked out about the same. If you're using gas for heating then your electricity shouldn't really increase unless you're filling the extra two rooms with shiny new appliances (or leaving the all the extra lights on)!

The only real increase we had was £25 p/m council tax. My building insurance is £15 p/m but that can depend a lot.

The only way to find out for sure though is to live in the property for a while!

Good luck!

nomoneytoday

I would budget on 3x, as "worst scenario" and then once you have some real numbers it will be a bonus, rather than trying to find the extra cash when the red bill arrives

HappyMJ

Why would it be triple? If I moved from my 3 bedroom house into a 1 bedroomed flat would my bills reduce to 1/3rd of what they are now? That would be great. National average for an average property which I would assume to be a 3 bed semi is 16,500kWh gas and 3,300kWh electric. Best duel fuel deal on the market is £1,013. Divide that by 3 is £338 per year for a 1 bed flat....fantastic.

Yorkie1

For gas / electric you can go onto the comparison websites and when they ask for your consumption, there is usually an option to input property details rather than actual consumption.

That will give you a very rough estimate.

davilown

fannyanna wrote: »

Well as the title says we’re planning on moving from a 1 bedroom flat to a 3 bedroom house next year. I’m currently trying to work out roughly how much our utility bills will increase and was wondering if anyone could help me.

We pay £23.57 a month to the water company. I have no idea how much this will increase for a 3 bedroom house.

We pay £21 for our gas and £33 for our electricity every month. We actually overpay and normally end up with a refund every 6 months (just got back £150 for 6 months). I’m expecting the gas bill to increase (as there will be more property to heat up) but on the basis that it will just be me and my Husband I wouldn’t have thought the electricity bill would increase that much.

Also what should I expect to pay for buildings insurance? We live in a leasehold property so don’t have an individual buildings insurance policy. We pay £15.15 a month for contents and personal belongings insurance.

three bed detached, two adults, two teenagers - Water is £60, unmetered with two different companies.
Gas and elec are £110 combined by actually using about £38 elec and just one £60 for gas (it's winter!)
Insurance was £225 with £75 cash back and £30 sainsburys voucher
hope this helps. don't forget council tax increase

nomoneytoday

HappyMJ wrote: »

Why would it be triple?

It won't. But it's easier to have money left over after budgeting, then finding it if you're under..