Southern Water bill so high.... Please help!

natz101

Hello there,

I'm wandering if anyone can offer me any advice as I am really at my wits end with this.

We had our Southern Water meter fitted a while ago and recently got our 3 month bill. The water bill is so high it looks like it's a company rather than a 2 person household. The total volume used in the 3 months was supposedly 90m3 which works out as average daily water usage of 783 litres!!! They estimate with the same water usage, my 6 monthly bill will be £490!

As I said we are a 2 person household, we do 2 lots of laundry per week and have no dishwasher. Showers are about 5 minutes, 5 times a week. There are no noticeable leaks anywhere (you would think there would be with that much water!!).

I tried ringing Southern Water, and when I eventually managed to get through, a nice lady helped me to take a meter reading and agreed it was far higher than it should be. She said she would call me back the next day to talk about the next step but I haven't heard anything since. It was so stressful getting through the first time, I just can't bring myself to phone and go through the whole thing again! I have MS which is playing up at the moment (I cried down the phone in my first phone call!!) and I just feel like all this is getting on top of me and I don't know what to do.

If anyone can offer me any advice I would be extremely grateful as this is taking over my life at the moment.

Apologies if this is all a bit of a mess to read - I just don't know what to do.

Thanks,

Natalie

Cardew

A two person household should on average use 100 to 120 cubic metres pa; so 90 cubic metres in 3 months is about three times that average.

Firstly have any of the meter readings been estimated; either on this bill or previous bill? Sometimes the previous bill can be based on an under-estimated reading and this is a 'catch up' bill.

If you have an internal leak, it will normally be a cistern overflow leaking(silently!) back into the bowl.

Assuming your meter is external(on pavement etc) it is a simple matter to shut off water in your property at the stopc0ck and check that the meter reading is not moving.

If you have an external leak, most water companies will repair it free of charge as a 'one-off' goodwill gesture and, having estimated the leakage, refund any additional cost.