HELP!! SE WATER Meter Reading

froggit35

My elderly parents and disabled brother live in a bungalow and they received a bill that stated that they used 994 litres on average a day between (Nov & April) and that they therefore, need to increase their payment. This is equivalent to 33 baths or 12 showers a day!!!!!

There is no way that they have used that and with the fact that they are on clay soil, we would see any external water in the garden. Dad tried to say to them that it means that the meter isn't working properly and they basically left him a message today on their answer machine laughing its your problem not ours! It isn't - so I have taken this over from them as they are so stressed.

They won't pay it as there is no way that they have used that amount 40K Gallons of water in 181 days. 

Please help !!!

MattMattMattUK

froggit35 said:

My elderly parents and disabled brother live in a bungalow and they received a bill that stated that they used 994 litres on average a day between (Nov & April) and that they therefore, need to increase their payment. This is equivalent to 33 baths or 12 showers a day!!!!!

There is no way that they have used that and with the fact that they are on clay soil, we would see any external water in the garden. Dad tried to say to them that it means that the meter isn't working properly and they basically left him a message today on their answer machine laughing its your problem not ours! It isn't - so I have taken this over from them as they are so stressed.

They won't pay it as there is no way that they have used that amount 40K Gallons of water in 181 days. 

Please help !!!

A leak could easily hit those levels and you would not notice, it happens to plenty of people.

The first thing to do is check the meter reading, is it correct, the second is to check they are billing the correct meter number, the third is to check for leaks. They need to take a meter reading, use no water for an extended period 12-24 hours ideally, then read the meter again, if the meter has gone up despite no use in the intervening period then there is a leak. Until you have done those three things then everything else would just be speculation. 

froggit35

Thanks we've checked for leaks in the house, already. There is no way they cannot use water for 12 to 24 hours as they have my disabled brother there and they are in their 80s ( they are deemed as priority ), will check the meter when i get over there... if its not this whats next?

Jonboy_1984

Turn off the internal stopcock and make sure the meter isn’t moving.

jimjames

For that sort of consumption the meter has to be moving quite a lot so it would be very noticeable if nothing being used in the house and meter still turning. The leak doesn't have to be in the house, it could be on the pipe from the meter to the house (assuming meter isn't internal)

froggit35 said:

Dad tried to say to them that it means that the meter isn't working properly and they basically left him a message today on their answer machine laughing its your problem not ours! 

Unfortunately that's the wrong way to be looking at it as the meter is almost certainly working fine but that doesn't mean they're actually using that much water - as above it could well be a leak so they need to avoid claiming the meter is faulty at this stage. Test the meter as suggested above and see what that shows.

How much water were they using before November?