Bill seems very high.

Mcmurphy1975

Hi,

I was just wondering if somebody could help me , I've just had my water bill through for £425 - it's says on the bill it is estimated for the whole year.

At the moment I am on a meter and do not owe any money to the water company.

I am with United Utilities and believe this bill to be quite high as I live on my own and my water usage is very low , the reason it is very low is that I go the gym most days and use there water it shower etc.

Is it normal to have a bill this high as I only roughly use about £600 p/a for my gas and electric.

Regards

[Deleted User]

Hi,

have you checked the meter and compared against the bill, may be overestimated.

Cardew

How long have you been in the house? i.e. is the estimate on your consumption, or that of the previous occupant?

Do you pay the bill by Direct Debit?

If you can provide the water company with readings of the meter to show their estimate is too high, they will normally reduce their estimate without any problem.

Mcmurphy1975

Thanks for getting back to me,

I've been living at the property for 8 years , and a couple of years ago the same thing happened and they said there must of been a leak and altered the bill but I don't believe them about the leak , they suggested the same thing over the phone a couple of years ago I give them the meter reading but the meter is located outside my property , and my property faces a main road so it would look a bit strange me lifting up them little covers that are in the pavement and there are 6 of them as well as there are 6 properties in my block of flats and they are not marked.

As for the direct debit I've come off that and started paying by the payment card as they kept on putting my bills up and at one point they wanted £45 pm from £30 pm - I'm sure I am getting ripped off.

molerat

Without reading the meter you will never know so get out there, find which meter is yours and read it.

Mcmurphy1975

I'd love to know which is my meter , there are 6 of them on the main road , I've never seen anybody pulling these covers up before to get meter readings seems a bit strange , and how do they open up?

macman

Not at all strange.It's just a hinged flap, use a long screwdriver or similar. How do you think the utility co. read them?
But if you haven't checked in 8 years, how have you verified your billing though?
You can check the serial number against your bill, or do a flow test if you have to.

Mcmurphy1975

thanks , ill have a look tomorrow first light, so there will be a serial number on the bill that will match a number on the meter - learn something new everyday - thanks guys

thomasfreed

Mcmurphy1975 wrote: »

Hi,

I was just wondering if somebody could help me , I've just had my water bill through for £425 - it's says on the bill it is estimated for the whole year.

At the moment I am on a meter and do not owe any money to the water company.

I am with United Utilities and believe this bill to be quite high as I live on my own and my water usage is very low , the reason it is very low is that I go the gym most days and use there water it shower etc.

Is it normal to have a bill this high as I only roughly use about £600 p/a for my gas and electric.

Regards

You must regularly check for your utilities at home for it might have some leaks that you didn't noticed. You can also compare your bill and the meter, they might have been mistaken in their readings.

tasharolli

Hi
Just found out that thames water had put a meter in on a joint stopcock. we have been charged for our neighbors water and ours for the past eight years.
You might want to check they have not made an error when installing the meter.

treeze

It seems a lot.I live alone and my annual bill is half that amount.