Crazy water bills

mml224

Hi folks, had my head in the sand for a while now and didn't notice the water bills doubling a few months ago...
Logged in to my account and the balance said £480, i then submitted a meter reading and it raised to £785! I pay £145 a month at the moment.
What I can't understand is the account doesn't say credit or debit.  I rang them to enquire and they stated that is the debt I am in!
This doesn't seem right to me. How can showing a balance of £700 in black mean it is what I owe them?

Advice appreciated folks because right now that is a hell of a lot of money and right now I can't tell who owes what!

Cheers.

Cardew

Assuming this is not an April fool's joke.

What is your company?

Do you have a meter?

Is so how many cubic metres do your bills say you are using?

If no meter  what is your Rateable Value(shown on bill)

mml224

No to April fools, United Utilities, yes to the meter, aparently since November we have averaged 650 litres a day.

I am going to check for a leak by turning the stop tap off and taking a read on either side, because this amount seems pretty crazy.

Still, why can I not tell from the account status above whether I am in credit or debit? To me, the screen is presented as if they have excess money of mine!

mml224

There are two adults and two teens however... But I still have seen no evidence to suggest anyone has used that much water!

MattMattMattUK

mml224 said:

There are two adults and two teens however... But I still have seen no evidence to suggest anyone has used that much water!

Doing a rough calculation 650 litres a day only equates to around £92 pcm, to get to £144 pcm you need to be using around 1,200 litres a day, which is high consumption even for four adults in the house. 

What is your actual usage over the whole of the last year? 

mml224

I cannot find how many cubic meters we use, but given they have stated .65m^3 average I guess that means .65*365=237.25 m^3 a year.
£1.85/m3 water
£1.241/m3 waste
=£3.091*237.25=£733.33+other charges (standing etc..)../12≈£61

Which would be fine, if only I knew what the £785.20 was referring to in the balance above! Crazy there is absolutely no reference to it being owed to myself or the water company or am I missing something obvious here?

mml224

Just to add, our original monthly amount was about £68 a few months ago. Something has made them put the D/D up and it points to the 700 figure being a debt, so to speak.

mml224

I've left the stop tap on for an hour and the meter has not moved. I am not aware of any leaks in the house, and as there is a cellar, they should be easy enough to find I'd think. The plumbers that come to this (rented) place are useless though and I have had to repair a leak they caused previously, but it was almost non-existant...

MattMattMattUK

mml224 said:

Which would be fine, if only I knew what the £785.20 was referring to in the balance above! Crazy there is absolutely no reference to it being owed to myself or the water company or am I missing something obvious here?

What are you viewing that on, if you try on the proper website, rather than the web version is it any clearer? 

mml224

MattMattMattUK said:

mml224 said:

Which would be fine, if only I knew what the £785.20 was referring to in the balance above! Crazy there is absolutely no reference to it being owed to myself or the water company or am I missing something obvious here?

What are you viewing that on, if you try on the proper website, rather than the web version is it any clearer? 

Exactly the same on the main website. I only used the phone as I figured it would be easier to paste here.

MattMattMattUK

mml224 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

mml224 said:

Which would be fine, if only I knew what the £785.20 was referring to in the balance above! Crazy there is absolutely no reference to it being owed to myself or the water company or am I missing something obvious here?

What are you viewing that on, if you try on the proper website, rather than the web version is it any clearer? 

Exactly the same on the main website. I only used the phone as I figured it would be easier to paste here.

Is there an actual bill/invoice you can access, rather than just that front page?