Any 2 adults + 2 children, Thames Water meter users. How much is your monthly bill?

confusedmummy

We are a 2 parent, 2 young child family. Thinking of switching to a water meter in a small flat. Currently paying £41 per month unmetered. I think this is a lot to pay (and Thames Water are going to raise this again come April), however, I am a bit nervous to switch to a meter as my husband has 10 minute showers every morning and I have the washing machine on about 5 times a week. My kids have baths about 4 times a week.

Can I ask other metered Thames Water users with a 4 person family what their monthly/yearly bills are like so I have some comparison? Thank you!

macman

Why worry? Since you can have the meter disregarded within the first 12m of installation if it's more expensive, it's a no-brainer to install one and find out.

Cardew

If you were metered, the average annual consumption is approx 55 cubic metres per year, per person; so say 220 cubic metres for the four of you. - although many people say they can use much less water than that amount.

The cost of metered water is 122.63p and sewerage 64.73p per cubic metre.(total £1.87) Taking a figure of 220 cubic metres means you would pay £411. (220 x £1.87)

In addition you will pay standing charges of £28 and either £29 or £52. So your annual bill would be £468 or £491.

So for average users there will be little saving, and assuming that you are paying 12 payments of £41 in the year i.e. £492

However if you can manage to use less water, there will be a saving, and, as said above, if you get a meter you can always change back to your current charging system if you aren't saving.

Rovver125

confusedmummy wrote: »

We are a 2 parent, 2 young child family. Thinking of switching to a water meter in a small flat. Currently paying £41 per month unmetered. I think this is a lot to pay (and Thames Water are going to raise this again come April), however, I am a bit nervous to switch to a meter as my husband has 10 minute showers every morning and I have the washing machine on about 5 times a week. My kids have baths about 4 times a week.

Can I ask other metered Thames Water users with a 4 person family what their monthly/yearly bills are like so I have some comparison? Thank you!

You think that's a lot to pay for unlimited water...We pay about that, sometimes a little less, but on a meter...

Cornwall, South West Water, almost £6 a cubic meter for water and sewerage at present and they still want to charge more!!

poet123

We pay £65 pcm unmetered. So £41 seems cheap to me!! We use so much water though that I would never voluntarily go on a meter.

confusedmummy

I phoned and spoke to a customer services person for Thames Water and he said that he didn't think they would be able to fit a meter anyway as we have two sources of water (the kitchen is served by a pipe from the street and the bathroom is served by a water tank on the roof of the block). He did say that in circumstances like that, we would have something called and assessed bill which for our 2 bedroom flat would be £280 per year, so we would make quite a saving. But we can't just switch on to it apparently, we need to apply for a meter first. Does anyone know about this assessed bill? Apparently it is done by how many bedrooms there are rather than the rental value which would be better for us.

HappyMJ

Not sure where £280 comes from but Thames Water has more info.

http://www.thameswater.co.uk/your-account/568.htm

sardarji

Ask URGENTLY yes URGENTLY for Thames Water to come and see whether your flat CAN be metered. As soon as they formally inform you it can't (as they now know, and may in fact have known for a long time), ask them, formally and AT ONCE, to switch you on to the "Assessed Household Charge"--which depends on how many bedrooms, still less if there's only one occupant.
For many people, this will save money compared with the (often enormous) old "Rateable Value" charge, which may be one reason why some water companies have never exactly rushed to advertise the AHC, even if they have known for years that (as in a typical block of flats) the hot water supply is shared in some block, so no flats there can be metered.
Why URGENTLY? Because Thames Water will not backdate your AHC--let alone repay the large sums they charged you (and other flat-dwellers) in past years because they had failed to inform their customers properly about the AHC. Thames Water, with large numbers of flat blocks in its area, was notorious for this lack of information (it is a bit better now)--and got exposed in the press. But it still didn't repay the victim, who for years had never heard of the AHC, for those past years of high RV charges.

crrussell

Thames water just like any other company does not advertise AHC as this is only available after meter application and confirmed a meter cant be installed. In a block of 2 or 50 flats there is a chance that some properties can have a water meter fitted for example a massionette where the supply comes from the street into the ground floor then upstairs the upstairs flat can be metered as they are on the end of the supply pipe and there usage can be isolated and measured but th flat down stairs cant. So in a block of 50 flats some flats may be able to have a meter. When the water industry was privatised RV was set an can only be changed by the request for a water meter AHC is only available if metering is not possible or not practical as the day will come where all properties will need to be metered and the ones that dont have meters will need documents ( engineers report ) to show why. AHC does not get back dated but also will apply from date it was confirmed that a meter cant be installed.