Huge Water Bills !

charlotte.oxley

Hi,

I have recently moved home and have just recieved a massive bill from Northumbrain Water! Whilst living in the property ( a 2 bed ground floor flat) our bills shot up to £85 a month! We both work full time so spent very little time in the flat - not enough to have a bill that size! We've had water meter readings and 'investigations' and still no explanation for the size of these bills.

Now the old landlord isnt allowing us access claiming we will just have to deal with it, im at a total loss as to what i should do, Northumbrain Water have asked for meter readings again but i feel like im going around in circles Is there anything at all I can do that will solve this once and for all?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Without knowing how long you lived in the property, how much water you used - measured by actual meter readings - and in total how much you paid during your tenancy, it is difficult to offer advice.

It is quite normal for Direct Debit payments to have a large increase if your bills were based on under-estimated meter readings. Termed a 'catch-up' bill that pays off any debit balance and for the water you use.

Many tenants fail to read the water meter when they move in/move out and find themselves paying for previous/subsequent occupants. Could this be the situation in your case?

charlotte.oxley

Hi Cardew,

We had been in the property 2 years and I cant recall if we did provide a meter reading when we moved into the property so that definetly could be the case. I'm providing the Water comapny with final meter readings any way but I'm not sure that will make much of a difference to their final decision.

Thanks

Cardew

So how much have you paid in total? how much is the outstanding bill?

Does the meter reading on the final(outstanding) bill, tally with the final meter reading you will be giving the water company?

You haven't actually told us what you consider the problem to be, other than the water bills are huge!

It could well be that you are paying for some of the previous occupant's water, as you didn't read meters when you moved in.

As a guide, the average consumption for two people, over a two year period, will be around 240 cubic metres. Using Northumbrian Water's 2012/13 charges that will be around £750(for the 2 year period)

Gothicfairy

You might well be paying arrears from past bills and that would put the plan up.
You need to work out your meter readings and consumption IE take a reading in the morning of day 1 and then again on say day 7..divide the amount used from the amount of days and that will give you your average daily consumption and then you can go to the water companies web site and find out how much your bill should be.
Then you need to find out why there is any difference if there is