Will requesting a meter trigger reassessment

williamcroome

Hi, moved into a property last year that Southern Water say cannot have a meter. It is assessed as 2 bed (although it was extended several years ago). 
I my previous metered property my bill was -£450. My assessed bill was -£530 and so I left it at that. 
With planned hikes I'm wondering about challenging for a meter (other houses on my road have them) but I am concerned that they may not only say no but also reassess house as a 4 bed and increase price further. 
Any experiences out there? 
I also wonder if I can challenge the assessment based on my prior usage which is much lower than average as, I try and be careful with water. 

williamcroome

From Southern Water website

Charges for assessed properties

If you are billed on an Assessed charge, the amount is based on the number of bedrooms at the property, unless you live alone, then there is a Single Occupier charge. The table below shows our charges for assessed properties.

Hence my concern that any discussion could lead to increased charges.

When I was in a metered property our usage was less than 2 bedroom. 

donutandbeer

We are with Thames Water so our experience might be irrelevant.

We are on assessed household charge and paying a 2 bedroom price. It’s about twice of what we used to pay in a previous metered home. 

We’ve requested them to fit a water meter a few times but they always came back (via email) saying that they've assessed our home in the past and determined that they can’t fit a meter. After we received the recent bill (£200/year more), we requested them to fit a water meter again. Then received the same response in email again.

In the email they said:
“We’ve assessed your home in the past and found that our technicians couldn’t safely fit a meter. This is usually because the pipework that supplies your property is either shared with your neighbours, or it’s laid in a way that means we can’t fit the meter without causing damage to the property.
If you make any changes to your pipework and think we may be able to fit a meter, please let us know via 0800 316 0989 and we’ll be happy to visit again.”

So I guess if you have a case similar to us then they might not even come out to assess your home. 

To be honest I’m more surprised that your house is still registered as a 2 bedroom. When we moved in to our current house and registered our account with Thames Water, they asked us how many bedrooms there are.