I'm moving into a rented property, is it possible to get a water meter?

jadex91

How would I get one, how do they work? And how would it be fitted?

I've heard they save money as there's two adults moving into a two bedroom house! Thanks

matelodave

Just ask your water company although it's probably a good ide to ask your landlord first

datlex

You don't need landlord's permission to put in a water meter if it is outside the property. You do if it is inside. However, good manners suggests you tell them.

macman

As long as your tenancy agreement is 6 months or more.

donfanatico

I have myself, my wife, baby boy living in a two bed room flat. Mother in Law will be with us for a while as well.
We shower daily, use a dishwasher daily and have a washer dryer that is used pretty much daily in addition to washing up some dishes manually.
We have an outside tap for watering the garden but we haven't used that yet as we only moved 3 months ago.

Is it worth pushing our Landlord for a water meter? The monthly unmetered cost seems quite high, something around 29£. I almost think it is better to stay on unmetered. What does everyone esle think?

matelodave

At only £29 a month then you're probably better off without a meter - we are quite frugal, there are only two of us and we certainly don't use the washing machine or dishwasher as much as you and ours costs us £25 per month.

datlex

Most water companies seem to have a water usage checker which you can then use to gauge if you are likely to be better off with a meter. I would recommend you over estimate on the usage.

Pincher

If you are in a flat, there is probably a cupboard you need access to, rather than digging up the pavement to put a water meter in.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

can shed some light.

depending on the water supplier district and their policy on the fitment of the water meter here is some info as follows.

in my area (welsh water and a previous contractor on leakage for them) there's certain conditions that have to be met.

private landlords with tenants that are not yet 6 months into the tenancy the landlord have to request the fitment of the meter themselves for their tenant.

that the flat is not a house converted into a block of flats, if this is the case, then this needs to be declared over phone, a survey (carried out by the water company and landlord) needs to be done first for suitability, in this scenario, if there is only one supply pipe to the property then in the basement there are many internal water pipes tapped into this supply the landlord needs to identify the pipe leading to the flat that wants the meter and a pressure test carried out, if the supply is shared you wont get a meter install unless the landlord fits sole supply pipes first at his cost installed to current regulations set out by ofwat and legislation set out by government its usually so costly to convert a shared water supply your landlord wont bother.

there are other policy conditions aswell such as where a meter is fitted, if one is located in the property, such as closet, under the sink there must be no electrical grounding to the pipe work, you must be prepared to allow the meter readers in to read them, if you don't then the bill is estimated, and you can end up paying more than you should not just that water suppliers are reluctant to fit internal meters, they are often tampered with to prevent accurate water usage for a reduced bill and proving tampering is almost impossible with internal meters as often access to the property is refused.

the type of external stop tap matters aswell, a pre inspection is done, if you have an old type stop tap (on without a flow plug) youll be booked in for a stop tap swap and meter fitment there can be a cost to this if the stop tap is inside the boundary of the property considerably, theres a waiting list for this type of work aswell wich can be inconvenient to you.

think this through carefully.

if there is a leak on the supply, and not reported/detected by the meter reader or by you its gets put onto your bill, you/landlord will then have to claim the money back via the water company who will check to see when the meter started to go up in cost from you normal usage, the cost to fix an internal leak falls to the landlord/occupant (what ever is in the tenancy contract but landlords usually have insurance for this), if the leak is caused by you washing machine or dishwasher (i.e the machine is faulty) you cant claim this increase back).

once you committed to having one and its installed it cant be removed, UNLESS YOU SPECIFY THAT YOU WANT A TRIAL then there is a way to have the meter removed but its a long process to go through and some hoops aswell.

£25pm sounds fine to me with the current occupancy level.

ive looked into this myself and the calculator put me off I pay £700 a year just shy of, on a meter would be £1800+ in a 3 bed with boiler shower and washing machine and 2 toilets and 3 sinks (although one isn't used in the small toilet very often as its not big enough to get 2 hands under it to wash with and makes a huge mess in there when the cold tap is opened usually end up mopping the floor of a puddle that soaks the hallway carpet so we wash in the sink in the kitchen after loo's use).

As a ex leakage contractor, I know all to well the downfalls of a meter, i often came across leaking meters that I had to change to seal rings in due to adverse weather conditions making the rubber O rings crack then water pressure pushed the weakened o ring to breaking point, and then being screamed at by the homeowner/Landlords/tenants that they have paid through the roof for a leak on their bill because a O ring failed.

sometimes the fitment of the meter being over tightened crushes or pinches the O ring that isn't evident at time of fitment with no spray out of water, just by doing my regular leakage stop tap kick, I open a new box cover to find that theres new meter spinning round with water spraying out under the meter due to piched or twisted O ring seal, I simply took a reading of how much water was leaking past the meter, unscrewed the meter slightly (with tap off) and re-sat it back properly wrote a note out for the occupier (retaineing a copy) an posted through the door if they weren't home, I handed my copy into my manager who would then pass it onto billing, but there are many who will do this type of easy fix not take a reading not post a note and the occupier paid for the loss sorry to admit that but it does happen as its an easy fix by leakage teckies kicking stop taps for leaks they don't think hang on someone is paying for this loss.

I found a leak on a supply that a customer refused to fix over a period of years (repeatedly discovered by other leakage teckies before me), he had been issued warnings in the past but didn't bother to fix (the leak was past the boundry line) so its the homeowners responsibility, his bill rose from £1100 a year to £2700 a year but only paid £1100 he was issue with another warning by me but in this case court action was issued, I had to attend as a witness and as he was paying his bill as per pre leak we couldn't disconnect, judged fined him for it ordered he had the pipe fixed and had 3 months in which to comply, he had to pay court fee's on top as a result he had it fixed at almost double the cost it would have been if he had not ignored the warnings.

biggest ever leak I found I on a metered supply to a house was just under 5.500 litres per min, the house had poor pressure for years which was investigated over and over with no luck, water company recognized there was leak on the line so he was put on an estimated bill, and every approx 12 month people were sent there to try and see if water broke ground it hadn't, I sent 2 days there, end of first day I could hear a small sound of water leaking in the front garden with my listening stick, I was told it was nothing just a underground waste pipe for the downstairs toilet, not convinced by my supervisor who I had to persuade to do a little more investigating in that area with more sounding equipment (called in the trade an elephants foot microphone) the next I set out to find that leak, I hear more with the elephants foot asking the home owner to flush his toilet hearing the rush of water going down the pipe but not quiet down much after the flush had gone (but you couldn't hear it above ground with the ear) I was convinced that it was going into the waste pipe, I had my supervisor listed and the homeowner flush again to see if he could hear what I did, and with a smile said "I think you have something", being a thorn in water companies side for years we called our manager and reported back.

the manager came out of the office to site expecting to discount our findings, but he couldn't ignore why a wate pipe not being used had the sound of pooring water going through it, he had a chat with home owner to see if we get permission off him to dig in that area by our contractor to investigate it, after some deal was struck (short of it if we could dig that day and find it-it would be fixed for free by welsh water).

we got the contractors there they dug it and found a covered inspection cover for the waste pipe, opened it up and water was flowing down the pipe, after following the waste pipe back towards house about 1.5 meters from the original hole, we found a old lead water supply pipe that when fitted had been drilled through the waste pipe (by accident it happens sometimes) the pipe was broken in half and pouring out.

the fellow had a new PVC pipe years before when upgrading his house with an extension, but they cut into and connected the new pipe on the same supply not knowing that the pipe at that time had a small leak further up the garden going into the waste pipe, hence gradual poor pressure a rising bill and the masking of the leak with it going in the waste pipe had people walking away from finding the leak with the opinion that its just waste water, I had come across this type of thing before in Herefordshire where I was previously based and much more rural so the boys up there had that bit more experience and knowledge that I took away with me when I got a position near home that's more urban than rural.

I felt quite happy with myself I must say.

I loved that job, shame my illness worsened to the point I was forced to retire ill health, give me half a chance and I jump back into that job anyday.

anyway dory to bore you all.

sniggings

some offer a discounted rate if you say you want a meter but your landlord won't allow you one.