MSE News: Water bills to fall 2% over the next year in England and Wales

Norman_Castle

klint wrote: »

Thanks, but I'm surprised by that. If I were the landlord and my tenant went ahead and put a water meter in my property, and then left after a year, I would be extremely annoyed - I hadn't asked for a meter and yet I would not be allowed to get rid of it to bring the property back to the state it was in prior to the let.

Have you tried asking the landlord?. They may be positive about it. Water charges will go to the tenants or if the property is unoccupied the charge to the landlord will be much cheaper.

klint

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Have you tried asking the landlord?

Hi Norman,

The landlord is an elderly couple who want to sell the house when I leave next year, and unfortunately a meter often reduces the value, quite unjustifiably, simply because there is a common mistaken belief that water meters mean higher bills. Besides, they're slightly deaf and only contactable by phone, and the amount of effort required to explain the benefits of a meter to them is not worth the saving.

nig0609

My bill has just gone up by 12%!

facade

Mine has gone up too!

I looked into a discount, and as stated, you have to apply for a meter that can't be fitted (vanishingly unlikely)

So I tried that online calculator, and answered the questions like "Do you wash?" and I could save £70 with a meter. (On a £400 bill) So I'm sticking with assessed charges. If I was metered, and the saving is so marginal, I'd be sticking bricks in the cistern, showering at work, flushing the toilet less often etc. and begrudging every drop, so I'm better off just paying a set fee, and making sure that I wash the car and rinse the drive every week to get my money's worth.

nearlyrich

Our bill was £720 per year on rateable value, we thought we would give a meter a try we now pay less than £300 with 2 of us in a 4 bed. We don't have a water hungry garden and even if we did the water company issues a hose pipe van at the drop of a hat... we have become more conscious of running taps and I use the colour catchers so I can do one load of washing instead of 2..

Cardew

facade wrote: »

So I'm sticking with assessed charges.

I presume you mean charges based on your Rateable Value(RV)


Assessed charges are only for customers who have applied for a meter, and a meter cannot be fitted.

facade

Cardew wrote: »

I presume you mean charges based on your Rateable Value(RV)


Assessed charges are only for customers who have applied for a meter, and a meter cannot be fitted.

I stand corrected Rateable Value it is
Luckily, the houses round here were worth so little in 1991 that my RV charges are just under £380.

Reading what you have to do to get it under £300 on a meter, looks like I'm on a good deal.

Cardew

facade wrote: »

I stand corrected Rateable Value it is
Luckily, the houses round here were worth so little in 1991 that my RV charges are just under £380.

Reading what you have to do to get it under £300 on a meter, looks like I'm on a good deal.

You don't say where 'round here' is!

Too many people on MSE post that metering must be cheaper simply because it was in their case.

I read some years ago that Ofgem estimated that, of the remaining unmetered properties, some 60% would benefit from getting a meter.

I suspect that percentage would be considerably lower now, as many have had meters installed.

Some people don't appreciate just how low the RV can be on some older properties. This particularly applies to houses that were unmodernised when their RV was assessed - which for most properties in England and Wales was in 1973.

I posted this some weeks ago:

You just cannot make sweeping statements about who will be better off. Some very large old houses have a very low RV and would be better off staying on RV even with a single occupant, let alone a family of six.


These large old houses could have been modernised at any time since 1990(or before) and their RV won't have changed.


I know of an old derelict cottage that was demolished and a new 7 bedroomed house was built with outbuildings in over an acre; this all done with full planning permission and in accordance with building regs, and they retain the same RV as the old cottage. The Water company aren't bothered because the way they are funded, there is no advantage in getting the owner to pay more.

sniggings

facade wrote: »

I stand corrected Rateable Value it is
Luckily, the houses round here were worth so little in 1991 that my RV charges are just under £380.

Reading what you have to do to get it under £300 on a meter, looks like I'm on a good deal.

the standing charges make up most of the £300 anyway, nearly impossible to get much below £300.

I use less than £6 worth of water a month,yet my bill is over £20 a month.

Cardew

sniggings wrote: »

the standing charges make up most of the £300 anyway, nearly impossible to get much below £300.

I use less than £6 worth of water a month,yet my bill is over £20 a month.

Again that depends what part of the country you live in.


My area has no standing charge for unmetered(RV) supply.


For metered water the combined standing charges(water and sewerage) are £42 pa.