Water meters and family sized homes

Penllithrig

We’re often told about how fitting a water meter could save you money. But what happens after you have one fitted to your large, family home and then decide to downsize?
 When my family moved a couple of years ago, one of the questions I asked was “Is the water on a meter or rated?” And I asked this because I’ve two lads with disabilities who often forget to turn taps off fully, or might flush the loo more than once just for fun, or spend too long in the shower. I can only imagine what it’d be like with girls! 

My point is, once a water meter’s in you can’t have it removed. I wouldn’t have bought our house if it had one and I’m guessing others may feel the same. It might save a little before you downsize, but might also limit potential buyers.

[Deleted User]

I have sold 5 homes over the past few years and I have never been asked whether I had a metered or unmetered water supply. I don’t even recall being asked to provide past costs.

Cardew

Penllithrig said:

My point is, once a water meter’s in you can’t have it removed. I wouldn’t have bought our house if it had one and I’m guessing others may feel the same. It might save a little before you downsize, but might also limit potential buyers.

The intention of the water privatisation act was that all properties should have a meter. A concession was given in 1990 that existing home owners could retain their payment based on Rateable Value(RV). Water companies had the authority  to fit a meter on change of account holder(unless it was impractical to fit a meter)

However few companies bothered as there was, and is, no financial incentive to do so. That said there are reports that compulsory fitting of meters is becoming more widespread; either on change of owner or in areas designated for compulsory metering for all properties.

Sarahspangles

I’ve had two meters fitted when I’ve moved house.  In both cases the previous owners thought it was a selling point that the water wasn’t metered.  In both cases my bill fell to 30-40% of the previous bill, despite me having a couple of kids and lots of patio plants.  And the fact that I have a meter means that if I did need to economise a bit, I could trim the number of baths we took!

JGB1955

It's immaterial - once the house is sold the water company can/will fit a meter, whether the new owners want one or not.

freesha

For all other bills, you pay for what you use. Why should water be any different?

wild666

I had a water meter fitted in May 2019 and it's the best thing I ever did. Before the meter I was paying £445 per year and within two years I had dropped from their estimated 50 cubic meters per year to just 12 cubic meters and a bill of just £108, first year was £132. Last November they asked me to provide a meter reading as they hadn't had one for over three years and they were saying that their estimated reading of 53 cubic meters seemed to indicate the meter was faulty. I phoned them and gave them the reading from the meter under the sink that was the same as their estimated reading and told the person that if I turn a tap on the meter increases the number of litres used from turning the tap on.
I'm very frugal with the usage even turning the shower off after I've wet my hair and between lathering and rinsing.

charybdis26

Thames Water (my supplier) intend fitting smart water meters to all properties with no right to refuse, citing "high water stress" as one reason.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-64875431

 

I've been metered for years and with an annual consumption of ~14m3 benefit from paying for actual water usage.

jbuchanangb

The graph shows what happened to my water bills when I changed to a water meter in 1999

matelodave

I had a graph just like that in my last house and like yours our bill more than halved when we had a meter fitted.

It was the first thing I did when we moved here and my metered bill is still less than half than just standing charge for an unmetered supply.

We have an automatic garden watering system which is on from around April to September and I wash both our cars and caravan at home. We do have a lo flow shower but thats our only concession to saving water.

Jonboy_1984

Thames Water were automatically fitting them for all new owners/occupiers when we bought our first property in 2007 (unless there was a physical reason they couldn't).