4,500% increase in Thames Water bill via Direct Debit

Engli7

Just spotted that Thames Water have been taking £905 a month from our joint account via DD for the past three months. Our regular payment for years has been £20 pcm for water, but looking at the last bill, it says we owe them more than £5,400!
I rang TW, who said there must be a leak on the property. We haven't noticed anything, and haven't changed our water usage either… we've been in the same house for the past 25 years, using roughly the same about of water.
A plumber is now heading our way. TW said if we fix the leak we can apply for "leak allowance" via their online form and we may get some money back. Unbelievable that they didn't inform us of this massive increase in the bill or the leak problem (which may well be in the street, according to the plumber on the phone).
Makes me distrust Direct Debits. Surely there should be certain limits, or at least an obligation to warn people before such a massive increase is simply paid out by the bank. It has left us short, and now we have to apply to get our money back.

TheMilkmansDad

Surely the DD was mentioned on the last bill you received? Assume you've checked that and all the meter readings are correct.........

mmmmikey

Hi - hope the plumber arrives soon and you get the leak sorted. I don't know about Thames Water, but Anglian Water were certainly very accommodating when it came to not charging for a similar leak at a friends flat. As far as the DD is concerned, if you check your bills you'll almost certainly see that you were advised in advance of the DD change, and £905 is an awful lot of money not to spot the first time it went out of your bank account. Unfortunately I think you've just found out the hard way why it's important to check bills and bank statements as they come in.

Engli7

Thank you mmmmikey, glad that Anglian were accommodating.
We don't get a physical bill, but an email every six months with a "login to account" button, which you have to click on to visit their website and then choose "bills and payments" from the drop down menu. I guess you could say I was remiss in not checking that. Given I've not contested a water bill in 24 years we maybe got a bit slack with it, and inbox is always overflowing. Still it seems that the default DD makes it too easy for this to happen.
Will check the meter, TheMilkmansDad. Not sure where it is, I think in the street.

born_again

Engli7 said:

Just spotted that Thames Water have been taking £905 a month from our joint account via DD for the past three months. Our regular payment for years has been £20 pcm for water, but looking at the last bill, it says we owe them more than £5,400!
I rang TW, who said there must be a leak on the property. We haven't noticed anything, and haven't changed our water usage either… we've been in the same house for the past 25 years, using roughly the same about of water.
A plumber is now heading our way. TW said if we fix the leak we can apply for "leak allowance" via their online form and we may get some money back. Unbelievable that they didn't inform us of this massive increase in the bill or the leak problem (which may well be in the street, according to the plumber on the phone).
Makes me distrust Direct Debits. Surely there should be certain limits, or at least an obligation to warn people before such a massive increase is simply paid out by the bank. It has left us short, and now we have to apply to get our money back.

They have to inform you of a change in the amount you are paying.

• If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit the organisation will notify you (normally 10 working days) in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request the organisation to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-guarantee/

Brie

If the leak is in the street then surely that's before your meter?  Or is your meter out there as well?  In which case how do you check the readings??  (I can't access my meter due to location under a locked metal cover in the road)

I suggest you check back on your bills to see when they first said it was going up and whether that tallies with your bank statements.  They need to give you 10 days notice of a change - most companies notify you every time they are going to take a DD whether it changes or not.  

If you want complete control you might try switching to a standing order instead.  

Direct Debit Guarantee

The Guarantee

• The Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits

• If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit the organisation will notify you (normally 10 working days) in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request the organisation to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request

• If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society

• • If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when the organisation asks you to

• You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify the organisation.

Keep_pedalling

£20 pm seems very low, average bills 20 years ago were double that. So maybe you have been undercharged for years rather than having a leak. 

Engli7

Keep_pedalling said:

£20 pm seems very low, average bills 20 years ago were double that. So maybe you have been undercharged for years rather than having a leak. 

But they would have told me that, wouldn't they? Also the meter readings would not have suddenly shot up.

QrizB

Engli7 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

£20 pm seems very low, average bills 20 years ago were double that. So maybe you have been undercharged for years rather than having a leak. 

But they would have told me that, wouldn't they? Also the meter readings would not have suddenly shot up.

Can you (or your plumber) read your meter and make sure it matches the reading on your bill?

Can you share the last few years of meter readings with us?

mta999

can you read your water meter? if so, turn all your taps off and read the meter. wait a couple of hours and read it again

if there is a leak of that size the meter should have moved

Engli7

Problem solved!

Here's what happened:

When TW told me there must be a leak, I called a plumber who said they would charge £800 + VAT to find it (not to fix it, mind). This gave me the impetus (with advice above) to search again for the meter. I found it in the pavement outside, about a foot down, under a hatch and a second plastic cover, which was why I didn't see it first time around. After lying in the dog pee for a bit I managed to make out the numbers on the dirt-caked dial. I found we have been using only about .5m/day since the last reading – almost exactly average usage for a family of five, and an eighth of the amount on our TW estimates.

So there is no leak.

Going back to the bills, I found that even though we have had a meter for a decade, Thames Water have been estimating our reading since 2021. At least two meter readings in the past five years that claim to be "actual" on the bills (as opposed to estimates) are clearly guesses. (I imagine this was because engineers told the company they had visited the property without doing so.) Going back five years, we seem to have used almost exactly the same .5 m/day all along, but TW produced huge underestimates from their flawed data (which made our bills £20/month) and then this huge overestimate. They based the DD charges of £905 a month, which we have been paying since June, on this last estimate. 

When I called TW back with this info they asked for a photo of the meter so they can recalculate the bill. I hope this will solve it, without having to pay £1k+ to a plumber etc. 

No apologies from them yet. The whole thing has wasted an afternoon. I will be complaining. 

Huge thank yous to everyone on here for your help. It has been really very useful.