£1200 water bill - am i liable for the bill?

GabrielaP

My toilet canister wouldn't stop leaking, I alerted my landlord as soon as it happened but that morning I was leaving to visit my family. The landlord told me due to the Christmas holidays it might take a while to get it sorted. It took 3 weeks for that to get done, during this time water was constantly going down the toilet. I just got my water bill and its £1200, my highest one in the past two years has been £80. I live by myself in a one bedroom apartment so there is not way i would've consumed 450000 litres in 6 months. My water company said I am not eligible for leakage allowance, what are my options?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Normally the landlord would be responsible for the loss when a fault has been reported. However it is difficult to envisage a 'leak' of that magnitude - something in the region of 800 litres an hour for the 3 weeks.

Have you been getting estimated bills? £80 (as a maximum) for 6 months seems very low.

GabrielaP

They were actual readings. I've been in the house for a year and a half and the meter only went from 107 to 150 in that time. I rarely cook, I take showers not baths and I travel quite a lot so the usage shouldn't have been much. Now my meter is at 590 so I have been tracking it today to see if maybe there is another leak as doing the math it still seems like quite a lot for just a broken toilet basin. 

matelodave

The semsible thing would have been to turn the water off at the main stopcock if you were going away rater than letting it run continuously

spiro

matelodave said:

The semsible thing would have been to turn the water off at the main stopcock if you were going away rater than letting it run continuously

Or turn off the valve feeding to toilet cistern at least.

Hasbeen

GabrielaP said:

My toilet canister wouldn't stop leaking, I alerted my landlord as soon as it happened but that morning I was leaving to visit my family. The landlord told me due to the Christmas holidays it might take a while to get it sorted. It took 3 weeks for that to get done, during this time water was constantly going down the toilet. I just got my water bill and its £1200, my highest one in the past two years has been £80. I live by myself in a one bedroom apartment so there is not way i would've consumed 450000 litres in 6 months. My water company said I am not eligible for leakage allowance, what are my options?

You let the water flow from the toilet canister or toilet basin? Do you mean toilet cistern for 3 weeks? 800 litres/hr and did not think to turn the water off? Would think that would be like leaving the cold water tap running non stop. There will be a valve at the cistern and also a main valve to turn water off in an emergency.
You went away at Christmas and left it running!
Looks like you are responsible for water used.