Excessive Water Bill

tracy1624

They recently doubled our water bill from £120 to £240 a month, they didn't inform us and when I phoned they told me it's correct.

We are with Thames Water and have a water meter, but the cost is so high when we live in a 3-bed house, there are 3 of us in the property and no one is home all day.

I have asked them to come and check if there is an issue with our meter, and they have said they don't need to as it's correct.

With the 20% going in April, we are looking at nearly £300 a month.  Has anyone got any advice please?

Lorian

Make sure nothing is using water in the house and then check your meter is not spinning.

tracy1624

Thanks, what do you mean by spinning, the dial or the unit?

Lorian

There is usually a little black and white cog that spins in the middle of the dial when water is being used. Put a tap on and look at the dial and you should see it.

tracy1624

Thanks will have a look

brook_heather

You should be paying more like £50 per month so you could well have a leak or overflowing toilet cistern etc. so definately worth checking the meter is not recording any usage when everything is off in the house.

Merlin139

How many Cubic Meters of Water are you using per quarter?

I live in a 4 bed house with 3 adults and only pay £35 per month. I have also built up a credit on my account, which before the rise in April would have meant my monthly rate going down to £31 per month. We use about 9 Cubic meters a month.

A couple of years ago I had an overflowing cistern and Yorkshire Water phoned me up to ask if I had a leak. They could see that I was using water 24 hrs a day through my meter. I believe that when they read the meter electronically with some gismo standing above it, the information is downloaded and from that they phoned me up.

After sorting out the overflowing cistern I was actually credit an amount that Yorkshire Water believed I had wasted due to what they called a leak.  

Based on the price your quoting from April I think you are being billed for 70 Cubic meters of water per month. Taking the rate of £2.4743 m3 for clean water and £1.5480 m3 for waste water. (Rates taken from Thames Water website)  70 m3 tells me you must have a big problem or someone is taking 60 minute power showers everyday. 

dunstonh

They recently doubled our water bill from £120 to £240 a month, they didn't inform us and when I phoned they told me it's correct.

E&SW water phone me periodically to say that we are a very high user and above our neighbours.  That last bit is BS as we have no neighbours but I suspect they use first part of the post code and assume everyone in that postcode is the same. 

Anyway,  we are an ex farm which is now equestrian.   So, we do use a lot of water.   Water troughs in fields, water buckets for each stable (about 3 per horse per day),   water for the boom sprays for weed killers,  sprays for the fields over summer in dry spells.   And that is all before the house use.   And we pay £52pm and using around 220m3 a year with actual readings. (we have been as high as 330m3 a year but that was still cheaper than what you have paying)

So, that gives you some context compared to what you are paying.   

Either you have a leak or someone is leaching water from you.    Don't easily rule out an issue. Many years ago, we lived in a new build and our water use was over 300m3 a year but that was just a normal house with family.  It turned out that the plumbing for the water was wrong, and two houses were going through one meter.

tracy1624

I have been on the phone for 3 hours today with Thames Water and they are saying there is not an issue, they are refusing to send someone out to check.  We have started sending a weekly reading in and this weekend we are going to turn the water off to see what happens.

I don't know how the water meter records the information, but its saying we are using around 50/60 litres a water during the day when we are at work. Is this normal?

QrizB

tracy1624 said:

I don't know how the water meter records the information, but its saying we are using around 50/60 litres a water during the day when we are at work. Is this normal?

If you're using that much when the house is empty, I'd suspect a leak. Possibly a toilet cistern that's always running?

MattMattMattUK

tracy1624 said:

I have been on the phone for 3 hours today with Thames Water and they are saying there is not an issue, they are refusing to send someone out to check.  We have started sending a weekly reading in and this weekend we are going to turn the water off to see what happens.

It is not their issue. If the meter is rising when no water is being used that means you have a leak on your side of the meter, your pipes, your property. You need to pay a plumber or leak detector to fix it.

tracy1624 said:

I don't know how the water meter records the information, but its saying we are using around 50/60 litres a water during the day when we are at work. Is this normal?

It indicates a leak. As for "normal" that depends, many people ignore leaks so it might well be normal, but that is irrelevant.