Southern water- anyone's bills reduced, since having meter fitted?

skintpaul

SW letter received, saying they need to check inside property, with view to fit a meter..

They claim 'only pay for water you use', and that 60% of customers have 'already benefited'..

It doesn't say by how much, if at all - And if any whether any standing charges, installation cost etc..?

If not suited for meter, I get changed to an 'assessed tariff' (no info on that, as yet) -I don't like the sound of that!


Now, here's the biggie - If no appointment made, they will make a 'no access charge' of £800!

GingerBob_3

skintpaul wrote: »

SW letter received, saying they need to check inside property, with view to fit a meter..

They claim 'only pay for water you use', and that 60% of customers have 'already benefited'..

It doesn't say by how much, if at all - And if any whether any standing charges, installation cost etc..?

If not suited for meter, I get changed to 'assessed tariff'... Dont like the sound of that!

I'm assuming this is a compulsory metering? You can't stop them fitting a meter, but about them coming into your house? I'm sure someone will advise on that point. Water meters are only good for low occupancy dwellings.

matelodave

Have a look at their website for the assessed charge information. They usually only offer that if you are the one who asked for a meter.

skintpaul

Cannot be fitted outside, apparantly. Building was constructed in a weird way, with main plumbing waste pipes etc were built into the walls, cannot access without taking the place apart!

Council tax band B, if that helps. sole tenant.

matelodave

I've had a meter for about 15 years, there are two of us and we are at home all day. It saves me at least £300 a year relative to the RV charge.

The council tax band is irrelevant, the Rateable Value is based on the old rating system which bears no relationship to the Council Tax bandings. My present RV in a three bedroom bungalow is a lot more than it was in a 4 bedroom house but the tax band for the bungalow is C instead of D for the house

I'd guess that if you are a singleton then it's a no brainer to have one fitted, why pay for more than you use? You could have been saving money for years if you'd had one fitted earlier

Goldiegirl

matelodave wrote: »

I've had a meter for about 15 years, there are two of us and we are at home all day. It saves me at least £300 a year relative to the RV charge.

The council tax band is irrelevant, the Rateable Value is based on the old rating system which bears no relationship to the Council Tax bandings. My present RV in a three bedroom bungalow is a lot more than it was in a 4 bedroom house but the tax band for the bungalow is C instead of D for the house

I'd guess that if you are a singleton then it's a no brainer to have one fitted, why pay for more than you use? You could have been saving money for years if you'd had one fitted earlier

That's the same as us, we must have saved £1000's over the years

missbiggles1

Our bills went up enormously when we moved to a property with a meter - we seem to be unusual.

matelodave

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Our bills went up enormously when we moved to a property with a meter - we seem to be unusual.

where did you move from and to. Were you still with the same water company.

Did you actually take notice that you could control your costs by reading your meter and reducing your usage or were you just as profligate with it as before.

I've generally noticed that those on meters tend to be a bit more careful with their water usage by not letting it run down the sink, overfilling kettles etc etc.


It can make a lot of difference to your consumption when there's an incentive to save it by having to pay for what you use.

Cardew

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Our bills went up enormously when we moved to a property with a meter - we seem to be unusual.

Not that unusual.


The biggest factors are the Rateable Value(RV) of the old unmetered house and the number of occupants.


Some RVs - particularly with older houses could be really low and hence low water charges.

Cardew

OP, Your meter is being fitted under a compulsory metering programme. See

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/Media/Default/PDFs/MeteringChgsGuide_2015_16.pdf

The Secretary of State has determined the whole of our water supply area to be an area of serious water stress. By virtue of regulations made under the Water Industry Act 1999, this provides us with legal powers to install water meters for charging purposes.


We are carrying out a metering programme, on an area-by-area basis. Under our metering programme, household properties in our water supply areas will be metered for charging purposes. Meters fitted under our metering programme will be fitted free of charge.

If your charges are higher it will be phased in over 3 years.

spiro

The rought rule of thumb is that if there are less people living in a property than there are bedrooms you will save money.