Reasonable Increase or Noit?

supersaver2

Hi All,

I am living in a 2 bedroom property with my wife and our baby. I've just had my yearly water statement through and I'm a little shocked! We've always paid in the region of £29.00 per month for water on a water meter. We have the usual appliances, no garden plants to water though or power shower and this seemed reasonable. On my latest bill my monthly direct debit is raising to £58.00 per month! We haven't done anything differently to previous years, same amount of showers, washes etc This seems a very large increase and I can't work out why? Obviously we have a baby in the house now, but she can't be using all that extra water! Have water prices gone up drastically recently? We are in the North West of England. The bill has actual meter readings on and I saw the meter reader here a couple of weeks ago taking the reading.

Thanks for any advice!

macman

Since you are metered, you can work out exactly what your comparative consumption is. That will tell you how much is down to the unit rate increasing, and how much down to increased consumption.
But prices have certainly not doubled (check your supplier's website for the last increase), so it'll be down to the recent reading showing an increase in consumption, a large catch-up bill and a consequent DD hike. When was the meter last read by you or the agent prior to the recent one?
You also need to consider that you may have an undetected leak downstream of the meter.

McKneff

You have obviously not been paying enough to cover your consumption for the last year, so now you are having to pay catch up, as well as the amount that you were underpaying.

It has nothing to do with what you pay monthly. It is to do with what you use annually. The amount you pay on a monthly basis is towards your annual bill.

Cardew

supersaver2 wrote: »

We haven't done anything differently to previous years, same amount of showers, washes etc

Obviously we have a baby in the house now, but she can't be using all that extra water!

Thanks for any advice!

Babies are a cause of extra consumption. Not least the extra washing load.

As stated above, a contributing factor is probably that you built up a debit balance on your account(caused by extra consumption for baby?) and the increase is to pay back that debt and pay for the extra consumption in future.

macman

As above, a glance at the usage figures on your recent bills will reveal all.

supersaver2

Thanks for the replies.
Looking at the bill again it says we were in debit by £18.50 from last year so that doesn't seem to explain such a large monthly increase. Think a call to united utilities is in order. Also i would like to keep a a check on the readings myself (i take gas/electric readings every month) but my meter is on the street under a man hole, am i ok lifting it and taking my own reading?

Cardew

supersaver2 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.
Looking at the bill again it says we were in debit by £18.50 from last year so that doesn't seem to explain such a large monthly increase. Think a call to united utilities is in order. Also i would like to keep a a check on the readings myself (i take gas/electric readings every month) but my meter is on the street under a man hole, am i ok lifting it and taking my own reading?

You could have been in credit the year before last and the £29 monthly didn't fully cover your consumption but lowered that credit balance and left £18.50 debit.

It is strange that you state you have always paid £29 monthly because United utilities prices have increased(as have all the companies) over the years.

You can of course check your meter, but your bills or UU will tell you what your consumption has been tear on Year.

supersaver2

Cardew wrote: »

You could have been in credit the year before last and the £29 monthly didn't fully cover your consumption but lowered that credit balance and left £18.50 debit.

It is strange that you state you have always paid £29 monthly because United utilities prices have increased(as have all the companies) over the years.

You can of course check your meter, but your bills or UU will tell you what your consumption has been tear on Year.

Sorry i didn't mean i've paid £29.00 every month since i've lived here, i actually use to pay a bit less before i got married and the wife moved in and started having long showers! My bill does say if your payments have increased and you don't have a large balance owing that they estimate the household will use more water in the next year! No idea how they can estimate that when they know nothing about the household. I suppose we will be in credit next year and the monthly payment will be reduced again.

macman

supersaver2 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.
Looking at the bill again it says we were in debit by £18.50 from last year so that doesn't seem to explain such a large monthly increase. Think a call to united utilities is in order. Also i would like to keep a a check on the readings myself (i take gas/electric readings every month) but my meter is on the street under a man hole, am i ok lifting it and taking my own reading?

Why don't you just look at your cu m consumption from your bills rather than guessing? It shows you all you need to know.
What your DD is is not relevant to the issue of whether your consumption has increased-that's what you need to check.
You can read your meter any time you wish-that's what it's there for.

phsci

Not only will you be better informed if you read your own meter, say monthly, you can then submit those meter readings to UU at http://www.unitedutilities.com/Submit-a-meter-reading.aspx
Their system will automatically recalculate your likely charges and adjust your direct debit accordingly. The system seems to do this (for me) even if the adjustment is trivial (i.e. less than £1 per month).