Sorry if i sounds dumb but is this the norm with bills.

Cardew

pinkteapot wrote: »

How many bedrooms does your house have and how many of you are there? Rateable bills are generally bad value unless your house is stuffed to the gills with people. They assume the house is completely full with everyone using lots of water in setting the rates.

Just a correction on this.

The setting of the Rateable Ralue(RV) of your property is, and was, nothing to do with the Water Companies.

For most properties in England and Wales the RV was set by the local authority(i.e. council) in 1973, and up to April 1990 for houses built post 1973.

RV was the method of of collecting local council taxes prior to 1990 - 'The rates'. You paid xxp for each pound of the RV. e.g. if your RV was £500 and 'The rates' were 30p in the pound you paid £150.

The RV was based on the notional rent your property could command at the time it was set, and was nothing to do with the sale value.

In 1990 the RV system was abolished and the Poll tax came in, and then followed by the present Council Tax banding scheme.

It is now only the water companies who use the RV for charging purposes. It cannot be changed as there is no mechanism for doing so.

macman

charliemaine1bee wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice,am going to ring on monday about going onto a meter,it is a big house we rent but im really frugal as far as use of water,gas,elec etc goes so Meter seems the way forward i think.And as you say i can switch within 12 months if needed.
Can i go onto a Meter for sewerage?

Waste water is not metered! It's based on a fixed percentage of water imported.

Gothicfairy

macman wrote: »

Meters can be disregarded as long as you request it within the 12m deadline. Hhowever the next occupier or tenant cannot switch back to RV billing once a meter has already been fitted.

This is now no longer true, it all depends on the water company now as some do not allow any reverting back.