Southern water. Am i paying too much?

vickivaughan93

I moved into my flat on the 10th December. I have barely touched my water and yet i have to pay a fixed payment of £40 monthly even though i dont use much at all and its only me who lives here. Plus with 13 days i had to start paying that amount.

Doesnt sound right to me?

matelodave

Who do you pay your water and sewerage charges to - the landlord or direct to the water company. If its the landlord then its probably in your service charges, if its the water co then have you got a meter.
Did you register with the water co when you moved in and give them a meter reading - if you didn't you could be paying for the previous tenants consumption.
If you've got one, try reading it weekly for the next month or so to get a pattern of your usage - you could even send the readings through to the water co.
As you haven't been there very long they might have just guesstimated what they think you'll use, in which case a months worth of readings should enable them to recalculate your direct debit.


It's probably worth getting a meter if you haven't as that should reduce your cost as you will only pay for what you use rather than a fixed amount - if you look at the Southern Water website there's a calculator that suggests that a single person on average uses 50cu.m a year which on a meter would cost about £250 a year = £21 a month, so if you are paying £40 or more you should try and get a meter. If you can't then ask them for an assessed rate which should reduce it a bit

sax11

How many people are in the flat - i took a meter reading as soon as i moved in and held off paying southern water for ages until they gave me an accurate(ish) figure.
They worked out my payments to be about £30 a month but i use so little water it will probably be going down.

macman

Some basic info required-are you metered, or on RV billing?
If the latter, then obviously your usage has no bearing on the billing-you'll pay based on the RV.