Worried Sick - we have a water leak may cost £000's

Bettie

May pay to try to narrow it down by turning any isolators off and seeing if there's still a leak showing

dunstonh

Have they actually said you have a leak or could have a leak?
A number of water companies have a team that comes out to check for leaks if your water level is high or has increased above a certain amount.

Bettie

any updates on this ?

my leak is back, if it ever went away. Have to go through it all again. 😭

thriftytracey

We had a very helpful STWA engineer visit and he confirmed by doing various tests that we had no leak that he could ascertain and communicated it to STWA. He even came in the house and checked the toilets.

He thought it may be a billing issue.

We had a new meter fitted in May 2025 and that's when our water usage doubled (looking back at past 180 day bills).

STWA said they would fit a new meter and made an appointment. They then called a week later to say they weren't going to fit a new meter but sending someone out to check the meter instead, but couldn't book an appointment yet.

There is a little bit of water where the stopcock is and pipe coming in from underground into the wall of the downstairs toilet. I have wiped it all and put a container underneath to see if there is a leak. However, if there was a leak here we would have seen it on the floor. Will get a plumber to look at it.

No water leaks under sinks, dishwasher, basins, washing machine. Two outside taps are turned off tight and dry.

I am going to read the meter in the morning tomorrow before we use any water, and then last thing at night to see our consumption for one day.

STWA have put up our direct debit up from £30 to £43 but this only covers the increase in charges not increased usage.

I will post the numbers here after readings.

Bettie

my leak was at or under the meter. There was no sign of wet, drips or leaks. I was told it had been repaired.

After no one came to take meter readings I went out to the street to take note of them myself and I noticed the cog still going round despite no water being used. I also noticed my old meter was still there when I had been told I would get a new one. My next door neighbour had a new meter fitted at the same time as my repair. ( The meters are in the same hole next to each other) She has no idea of her old readings or of any work being done. I wonder if that new meter was supposed to have been fitted in place of my leaky one.

I will phone them Monday and see what they have to say.

thriftytracey

So, we took readings between 07:43 and 08:37am Tuesday 10 February and Wednesday 11 February before using any water.

During this 24 hour period we had used 494 litres of water. Apologies too much information about sanitary habits below!

2 people aged 65 and 70

Toilet use

one morning wash per person/cleaned teeth - never leave tap running whilst cleaning teeth

Combi boiler from 7.30am - 11.00am - Not sure this is counted as we are monitoring water usage from taps

Lunch time - average sized washing up bowl for washing up, some swilling

Dinner Prep - some swilling of items e.g. tins, packaging and washing hands, water for cooking pasta

Dishwasher run - 14 litres per cycle x 3 = 42 litres

One evening wash and teeth cleaning.

Kettle - 3 to 4 times per day but only fill as per cups of tea/coffee being made

Various web sites advise two people average 301 litres per day.

No Shower or washing machine use.

I took another reading at 14:50pm today, so 36 hours - used 629 litres.

We were out yesterday from 9.30am to 4.30pm so did not use toilets, kettle, lunch prep. We did use the Dishwasher and washing machine, 2 x kettle, dinner prep and usual morning and evening washes. No shower.

Dishwasher 42 litres

Washing Machine 50 litres

Currently STWA have said they have no appointments for meters to be checked. They said in their letter we need to get a plumber out to check for leaks in our house.

I shall telephone them again to try and get an appointment. I guess we will need to get a plumber out and pay for this. The STWA engineer stated there were no leaks between the meter and our property.

I state again this additional water usage only started from May 2025 when a new meter was fitted. I am not sure why a new meter was fitted as we already had a water meter. My husband said it was changed because it had to be manually read and the new meter was to enable remote readings. Every house in the street has their own water meter with the exception of my neighbour who still pays via the old water rates method.

Interestingly, when we were taking the photograph this afternoon, its quite hard to get it in focus so takes a few minutes, the red numbers were changing and neither of us had used water or been to the toilet! We were both outside.

MattMattMattUK

It sounds like you have a fairly significant leak on your side of the meter which unfortunately means it is your responsibility, you can get a plumber in or do some checking yourself. Overflows on header tanks and on toilet cisterns should be the first things to check.

greyteam1959

I presume you have done the toilet paper test ??

Swipe

If the ST Water guy switched off your main stopcock inside the house and he's ruled out a leaking supply pipe between your house and their meter (i.e no increment), then I wouldn't bother paying for a plumber just yet. As mentioned, investigate internally until you find the problem. Ask friends or neighbours for help if you have no clue how to do that. I think you should turn off your internal stopcock again and then check to see if the meter is still incrementing to rule out any internal problem.

thriftytracey

Update.

We had a plumber visit and he identified the downstairs toilet as the possible culprit as water was continually (slowly) filling the bowl. He didn't think that would contribute to such high readings. Anyway last week he fitted a new flush system and we have taken at least 6 daily readings from the meter.

The highest reading was 264 litres (ran the washing machine and dishwasher).

The lowest was 198 - did not run either washing machine or dishwasher or have showers.

My husband still thinks it high for two seniors. But at least now we are down to average consumption.

So it must have been the toilet.

STWA have upped our bill only in line with the increase whilst all this was going on. I haven't advised them it was due to the toilet. I just hope they don't retrospectively charge us for the high usage from May 2025 - February 2026 …