Increase in DD, am I paying way too much?

poppett

We have been paying £68 did monthly and now we've received a letter to say from next month they are increasing it to £80!!!!!
We are a family of four, myself, hubby, 25yr old son, 19 yr daughter. 4 bed house. Average 18 showers per week, approx 5/6 loads of washing per week goes on.
It just seems that nearly £1000 per year is a lot. I am going to contact them today but I'm not optimistic about the outcome

Enterprise_1701C

Have you checked your account online lately? It would be useful to know if you are in credit or debit with them.

HHarry

That does seem a lot. We were also a family if 4, although we were pretty frugal on water, and paid £25 a month for a long time.

I assume you're on a meter. Have you checked to see if it turns with no water being used in the house? That would indicate a leak in the supply pipe.

Cardew

HHarry wrote: »

That does seem a lot. We were also a family if 4, although we were pretty frugal on water, and paid £25 a month for a long time.

.

I suspect you don't live in Dorset like the OP??

Don't forget charges vary tremendously across the UK with the South West charges being up to 3 times as much as some other parts of UK.

footyguy

poppett wrote: »

We have been paying £68 did monthly and now we've received a letter to say from next month they are increasing it to £80!!!!!
We are a family of four, myself, hubby, 25yr old son, 19 yr daughter. 4 bed house. Average 18 showers per week, approx 5/6 loads of washing per week goes on.
It just seems that nearly £1000 per year is a lot. I am going to contact them today but I'm not optimistic about the outcome

Please don't take this the wrong way, but are you possibly already in arrears, so that not all the £80pm is for current usage (and so £1000 per year would be incorrect)?

Are you on a meter? If so have you checked the meter readings against the bill?

Are you being charged in accordance with the agreed tariff?

Is there a more suitable tariff for you? (some suppliers may only have one tariff, but some have low usage tariffs which may be expensive when you are not a low user). Unfortunately, you are not able to switch supplier.

If on a meter, are you sure the meter is correct, or rather incorrect? Faulty meters usually or slow, or stop, but I have known someone get a rebate for an allegedly fast running meter. They got their meter replaced (for a fee) but for the next year recorded significantly reduced consumption.
Now either their meter was faulty (running fast) or they reduced consumption after the meter change.
But as the water company did not check the old meter, they accepted the compliant of the customer and reduced the previous years bills in accordance with their latest usage (and eventually repaid the charge incurred for the replacement meter).

You can attempt to check the meter yourself, by drawing a measured, large amount of water yourself and comparing it to the meter reading change.

poppett

footyguy wrote: »

Please don't take this the wrong way, but are you possibly already in arrears, so that not all the £80pm is for current usage (and so £1000 per year would be incorrect)?

Are you on a meter? If so have you checked the meter readings against the bill?

Are you being charged in accordance with the agreed tariff?

Is there a more suitable tariff for you? (some suppliers may only have one tariff, but some have low usage tariffs which may be expensive when you are not a low user). Unfortunately, you are not able to switch supplier.

If on a meter, are you sure the meter is correct, or rather incorrect? Faulty meters usually or slow, or stop, but I have known someone get a rebate for an allegedly fast running meter. They got their meter replaced (for a fee) but for the next year recorded significantly reduced consumption.
Now either their meter was faulty (running fast) or they reduced consumption after the meter change.
But as the water company did not check the old meter, they accepted the compliant of the customer and reduced the previous years bills in accordance with their latest usage (and eventually repaid the charge incurred for the replacement meter).

You can attempt to check the meter yourself, by drawing a measured, large amount of water yourself and comparing it to the meter reading change.

Hi, Nothing taken the wrong way! No, we are not in arrears with any of out bills.
Yes we are on a meter. i phoned them today and aired my concerns. I was told to check the meter myself tonight before they opt to send anyone out. We checked it first normally, with no water running. Then turned off the stopcock and re checked. The meter was still. So that rules out any leaks.

Cardew

The question to ask is how many cubic metres do you use a year, and do you pay for Surface Water Drainage?

Average annual consumption for a family of 4 is approx. 220 cubic metres.

footyguy

poppett wrote: »

Hi, Nothing taken the wrong way! No, we are not in arrears with any of out bills.
Yes we are on a meter. i phoned them today and aired my concerns. I was told to check the meter myself tonight before they opt to send anyone out. We checked it first normally, with no water running. Then turned off the stopcock and re checked. The meter was still. So that rules out any leaks.

If you have no accrued arrears, why are they putting up your monthly DD?

The only other reason I could think of is they have increased the cost of their tariff. They porobably have, but they seem to have put your DD up by almost 20% and I think water charges only went up by about 2% if that.

(unless you were on some special tariff that they are phasing out, and you happen to be a big loser as a result)