United utilities bill nearly tripled

Rachelnw

Hi, and thanks in advance for reading.

I'm looking for a little advice, my last bill seems to have doubled but I am having no luck with United Utilities.
A break down of my bills are as follows:
24/04/13 read - 03/09/13 estimated (133 days) - 35cm £146.43
03/09/13 estimated - 04/03/14 read (182 days) - 7cm £83.79

So this averages at 315 days at 42cm or 42 / 315 = 0.13cm per day and 0.13cm X 365 = 48.6cm per year.

Our latest bill as come in as:
04/03/14 read - 07/09/14 read (187 days) - 64cm £251.96

so this averages at 64 / 187 = 0.34cm per day and 0.34 x 365 = 124.1cm per year.

I have rang UU on more than one occasion and they have re-jigged my bill so it is now £249.55 (no changes in cm, days or anything) but I am still not completely convinced with this. They have told me that my old readings were the usage of one person and my new usage is correct for two people - I don't personally believe this is relevant as everyone uses their water different. I have done a leak test and the meter doesn't change, but I am just not convinced with the readings on this.
We have been on water meters for the past 8 years and our usage as always been of the lower readings; yet UU won't accept this and have said we must have had faulty meters in the past two houses and the first 10/11 months we have lived in this property.

I asked for UU to check the meter for a fault but they are quite reluctant as they said they have never come across a faulty meter and they would charge us £70+VAT if it isn't faulty.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I have reluctantly paid the bill but I am not just gonna lie-down and accept that this is right and we are suddenly using nearly 3 times our old usage with no changes to our usage.

Thanks again - Rachel

matelodave

Have you checked your meter readings yourself or are you just accepting the water companies readings & estimates?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


Did you check the 'actual' reading dated 04/03/14? - few of us do!
Also have you checked the latest reading is correct?


Are the readings for the water company taken remotely or with the Mk1 eyeball?


The meter reading on 4/3/14 does seem very low - on average a couple would use 320 litres a day and you have used under 50% of that amount.


How did you do the leak test? e.g. shut off the stopc0ck in the property and check for a leak between meter and property? Or is your meter in the property?


Could it be that you have developed a leak in the house? The main culprit is usually a cistern leaking silently into the bowl.


It is not difficult to roughly check the accuracy of the meter yourself. Depending on the readout of the meter the red numbers usually measure down to 1 litre. You can fill canister/pails with a known amount of water(say 20 litres) and check against the new meter reading.


Your difficulty is you have little grounds for complaint when you have roughly average consumption. If there is no internal leak and your rough meter check verifies that it is accurate, I can't see how you can take the matter forward; other than gamble £70+VAT on a meter check - which is standard procedure.

Rachelnw

Hi, and thank you for both of your replies.

I always check my meter readings whenever I get a bill, let it be Gas, Electric or Water - I like to know that I am being billed correctly for what I have spent. If I get an estimated bill and my reading is lower but the bill isn't too much than I generally leave it as that and know I have a cheaper bill coming for my next one - this is what I did on the 03/09/13 bill.


We did the leak test how UU told us too - take a reading as we're going out and then another as we get home, a few hours later.

My husband is going to be sent on the mission of checking the cistern for a leak and doing the canister check.

I did a check on what we used on water last night - we took the reading at approx. 5:30pm and this was 354742 then I did another check at 8am this morning and it has read as 354844 so a usage of 102litres, in this time we have used minimal water - toilet flushed on small/half flush (4 litre flush), washed hands and 1 shower at 5 minutes - this sounds excessive to me. I have not washed any pots deliberately and not had the washer on.

Cardew

I take it that the readings were 0354742 and 0354844 ?? if so that is indeed 102 litres. Provided you don't have a power shower(power not electric!) that does indeed sound excessive.

Rachelnw

Yeah that's correct.
We have a mixer-shower with a water saving head. I had a timed 5 minute shower and left the plug in, the water didn't even reach my ankles.
I just don't know where to go from here, as I believe that something is wrong but UU just won't take me seriously.

matelodave

When I suspected a leak I stated to take daily readings although it was fairly obvious because the meter still rotated even when the internal stop-valve was shut off. I still take them weekly so I can easily identify any anomalies.

I've got a couple of dual flush toilets and had them in my previous house and all but one have had leaking flush valves - after flushing there's been a very gentle dribble running down the back of the pan.
Sometimes it's been cleared by a vigorous shove on the button or a prod at the valve in the tank, others have required either the whole valve or flapper to be replaced.

Another had three inlet valves replaced in the space of three years (all supplied free by the manufacturer) until they changed the design - again only manifested by a continuous silent dribble into the pan.

In my opinion the old syphonic flushes were much more reliable than the complicated dual flush devices that are now being fitted

Cardew

matelodave wrote: »

When I suspected a leak I stated to take daily readings although it was fairly obvious because the meter still rotated even when the internal stop-valve was shut off. I still take them weekly so I can easily identify any anomalies.

I've got a couple of dual flush toilets and had them in my previous house and all but one have had leaking flush valves - after flushing there's been a very gentle dribble running down the back of the pan.
Sometimes it's been cleared by a vigorous shove on the button or a prod at the valve in the tank, others have required either the whole valve or flapper to be replaced.

Another had three inlet valves replaced in the space of three years (all supplied free by the manufacturer) until they changed the design - again only manifested by a continuous silent dribble into the pan.

In my opinion the old syphonic flushes were much more reliable than the complicated dual flush devices that are now being fitted

It is worth noting that the valve can sometimes be OK after one flush, and yet dribble after another flush.

Rachelnw

Excellent. Thank you for the advice, I'll get the hubby onto the job of checking the loo tonight. Is it an easy job to do?
Rachel

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Bets way is to test for leaks. Turn off the water at the Stop Tap, overnight. Do Not use the traps! Take a reading. In the morning, check reading is still the same. Then turn on tap, if there is an inrush, one of your cisterns is leaking. As above abput dual flush toilets, round our parish they are known as dual leak!

Average consumption is about 55 m3 per person a year, so 124 is a little high. Check here against your local water board.

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/watermetercalculator/