Help with 119% Increase to my water bill

MattMattMattUK

scopio said:

3 "Your usage is normally very low – if you normally use a very small amount of water, the increase might seem a lot, but really is nothing to worry about. This means in some cases the percentage increase looks worse than it is." meaning they are punishing me for using very little water! 

It does not mean that at all. 

scopio said:

As you have a meter, what has been your average usage in cubic meters per month ?
Over 183 days is normally 2m3
What is the usage from the latest bill and over what period?
Over 179 days again 2m3
With a bill of £13.86

What you can find, if you are a very low water user, would be that you could be just either side of a read but that means that your usage appears higher when billed. 
End of last billing period read was 99.99, this would be recorded for billing purposes as 99
End of the current billing period read was 101.00, this would be recorded for billing purposes as 101
Even though you have only used 1.01 cubic meters in that period the billing would be for 2 cubic meters because they only bill in full cubic meters, not partial. You may then find that at the end of the next billing period you have not even reached 102.00 (eg your meter might show 101.90) so you would not be billed for any usage (although standing charges would still apply). 

With ultra low users these kind of issues can occur, but they are a not actually an issue and balance themselves out in the end. 

scopio

Thanks all for your comments.
Yesterday I received an other email from Severn Trent confirming that my bill will not be increasing by 119% that what they meant was that my usage had gone up by 119%. Now that can be explained by the fact that they have been estimating my usage for the last few years when they stopped automatically reading the meters with the old system and now being able to read the meter again when it was replaced last quarter with the new automatic reading system.