Water usage seems way to high

pembo2908

Hi

So we recently bought a property in September, 3 bed semi, 3 adults and the property has a water meter.

The water is with united utilities and upon giving them our details, we were told to pay £71 a month. We took a reading on the day we moved in and then about 6 weeks ago they wrote to us saying we are basically using 1000 litres a day, two adults at work all day one adult at home. We do not even have a bath in the property, just a shower which all 3 of us use once a day for not long at all (5 mins or so) so they have now told us to pay £126 a month.
Since receiving the letter from them all of us have been really aware with the water, now only doing one washing machine load a day instead of at times three, mindful filling the sink and just overall cutting down on usage.

We have also now been doing weekly meter readings since the letter. Every week even with the changes bar one reading is still the exact same amount of usage, 2 or 3 weeks ago the usage wasn’t far off half the amount we use compared to other weeks, it was 4 units instead of 7/8, like we had been on holiday or something, we hadn’t an hadn't done anything differently bar the cutting down which has made no different whatsoever.

Here are the readings we currently have

27th Feb 993

7th March 1000

13th March 1007

21st March 1011

28th March 1019

4th April 1026

The toilet does not have any type of leak, I’m starting to wonder if we are paying for next doors usage ?

I’m just wondering what other people’s thoughts are on this

Thanks in advance

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Typical usage for a household of 3 adults is 2-300 litres (0.2-0.3 cubic metres) per day, so 1.4-2.1 units per week. You seem to be using 4-5 times that much.

Does the serial number on the mater match the one on your bill?

You can check if the meter serves your property by turning off the stoptap adjavtto the meter. Your water should stop. Leave it off for an hour or two and see if anyone else complains - or knock on your neighbour's doors and say "my water's off, do you still have a supply?"

The other option is you might have a leak. When you turn the water off at the meter, check the meter reading. Then, a couple of hours later, check the reading again. If it's increased, the leak is on the water company's side of the stoptap and they need to fix it.