New homeowner!

mattjell

Hi all,

Apologies in advance as I know this subject has been discussed at length but I wanted advice on my own personal circumstances.

I am about to buy my first house (signing the contracts on Wednesday) and am obviously preparing to sort out all of the utlilties, etc. I am buying it with my girlfriend and, as I understand it, with only the 2 of us living there it would make economic sense for us to have a water meter.

However, I also realise that once fitted, it can't be removed. Now, at some point in the future we would like to have children so assuming we remain in that house, would we be better off keeping off of a water meter, looking into the future and all that!

It's a hard one as noone knows what the future holds, but just thought I would get your opinions!

Thanks in advance!

Matt

Cardew

Whether it makes sense to have a meter now, or in the future, is dependent on your Rateable Value(RV).

It could possibly be cheaper on RV even with two in the house, conversely it could be cheaper on a meter with 4 or 5 in the house.

It might well be you have no option because the water company will make a meter mandatory.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

As a point of reference.... we have a 3 bed house, two of us living here, water meter and £15 per month bills. When my sister-in-law stayed (huge fan of baths!) our bills went up to £19 per month - we got a rebate that year because she only stayed a few months but we paid £19 per month all year.

boingsaidzebedee

I thought that water meters were automatically fitted to new houses and when a property changes hands.May be worth a call to your Water Company to ask.

Cardew

boingsaidzebedee wrote: »

I thought that water meters were automatically fitted to new houses and when a property changes hands.May be worth a call to your Water Company to ask.

That indeed is what was supposed to happen, gradually phasing out charges based on RV and having most properties metered.

However some companies enforce that provision(i.e. a meter on change of occupant) but other companies don't bother. Although there are some signs that more companies are going to enforce the provision of the Act - as indeed they should.

The problem is that it doesn't make any difference to the water companies' revenue, or profit, if meters are fitted or not. They are allowed by the Regulator to raise £xxxMillion and they adjust charges to raise that amount. So they don't bother unless pressure is applied.

Cardew

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

As a point of reference.... we have a 3 bed house, two of us living here, water meter and £15 per month bills. When my sister-in-law stayed (huge fan of baths!) our bills went up to £19 per month - we got a rebate that year because she only stayed a few months but we paid £19 per month all year.

That really isn't much use as a point of reference as charges vary so wildly across England. Some areas(the South West) pay over 3 times as much for metered water as other areas(and their RV charges are equally high)

macman

The meter can't be removed, but you can revert to RV billing within the first 12m if you wish. So really it's a no-brainer.