Just received a £400 water bill!

dllive

Hi,

Ive been paying about £10 per quarter for the past 2 years. Then yesterday I get a bill for £400! Theyve taken this payment from me with Direct Debit, which has made me overdrawn!!

Im on the phone with them, but currently 20th in the queue(!!)

I thought that a company had to give notice if they were going to change the amount of a DD? 

Either the amount is a mistake (which I hope it is!), or if its because theyve been undercharging me for 2 years, have I got a case to make to Ofwat? Do you think they can spread the payment out over 12 months?

Thanks

booneruk

Something must have gone wrong if you only paid £40 for water per annum! Even if you were on a meter I'm not sure a water bill would ever be so low. My bill for this year (Thames Water, not metered) is £370.

la531983

What were these £10 per quarter bills actually saying for the previous 7 quarters? Even with estimated readings it wouldnt be as low as that.

dllive

Heres an example of a previous bill. (Im a single person living in a 1 bed flat, so not a high user)

dllive

This is the latest bill(!)

Flugelhorn

that is still over £100 a year (£2.12 a week without the water company payment)

la531983

What is the "Government Contribution"?  And how can I get this?

As for those bills its not showing us everything. What readings are they using? Have they been estimated for years?

booneruk

la531983 said:

What is the "Government Contribution"?  And how can I get this?

I had to go and do some research myself after seeing that. Looks as if you can get it if you're lucky enough to live somewhere in particular.

https://www.melstridemp.com/news/ps50-water-bill-reduction-local-families-extended

Green_hopeful

booneruk said:

la531983 said:

What is the "Government Contribution"?  And how can I get this?

I had to go and do some research myself after seeing that. Looks as if you can get it if you're lucky enough to live somewhere in particular.

https://www.melstridemp.com/news/ps50-water-bill-reduction-local-families-extended

Water companies have schemes available for people in need. If you are having difficulty paying your water bill there may be something they can do to help. Anglian Water have lots of help and advice and a dedicated team to help their customers. 

Rodders53

That Bill was dated late August.
If you really only received that Bill yesterday (a Sunday?) then there are serious RM delivery issues in your area.  That's a dreadfully long delay.
You can probably invoke the DD guarantee to (temporarily) reclaim that cash due to lack of notice... while you agree a repayment plan (if the Bill is correct) with the water company or they recompute the Bill.

Check out those meter reading numbers... compare to the actual read of your meter. 
Meter Reader errors are not entirely unknown, if rare. 

Maybe you have a leak! ?  Some companies are fairly generous when a leak is found via a high meter read on the first occasion it happens.
So do check that possibility out, too.  (Water running down the back of a loo, for example.)

I'm paying £18 - £21 a month (c. £60 a quarter) for water here in East Anglia - but we flush our toilets via a rainwater harvesting system rather than mains so are pretty low users.

dllive

Thanks very much guys. I will investigate further.