Would you switch to a water meter

NervyBuyer

Recently moved to a new house without a meter. Unmetered bill is about twice what I was paying on my previous meter (different water company) and an online calculator for the new place suggests a metered supply would be about half the metered bill. That was based on its own estimate of my water usage (cubic meters) which is about 1/3rd higher than my actual usage was on the meter.

Single occupant with fairly low usage (shower at the gym, work in an office, never water the garden, don't have a car to wash etc).

The numbers suggest switching is a good idea, but it's 'only' a matter of ~£20 a month (at the moment) and only about 1/4 of my metered bill is usage charges so the rest are out of my control.

My main query is whether a meter might put off potential buyers in future. It's a 2/3 bed terrace (townhouse style so depends what you use the top floor for), 2 bathrooms (1 shower only). I don't expect to ever have anyone else living with me but neighbours in the same type of house are 4 person families.

Glad

Personally, as a single occupier with low usage, I would be very tempted by a meter.

I wouldn’t worry too much about future buyers. Plenty of houses are metered and I doubt many people would choose or reject a property purely on that basis. Also, a future owner is not necessarily stuck with your costs, their bill would depend on their own usage and water company rules.

The bigger consideration is probably your own circumstances. A single person, showering at the gym, not watering the garden, no car washing, sounds fairly 'meter friendly'

Just worth checking whether your supplier offers a trial period. Some water companies let you switch to a meter and revert within a set time if it turns out not to suit you.

MattMattMattUK

This should give you a good idea if you will save and how much your metered usage would be. In reality it is very difficult to use enough water to cost more than metered usage, unless you have a large property and water your garden a lot, which you are not allowed to do on a non-metered supply anyway. No buyer is going to care unless they are planning on moving a dozen people into a three bed property, in which case there will be more than enough of them to pay the bill.

https://www.ccw.org.uk/save-money-and-water/water-meter-calculator/

NervyBuyer

That's the calculator I used. My company says there's a 1 year trial on meters, so I think I'll have a go and see if they can install one.

Lorian

I would and it certainly wouldn't put me off buying the house.

As soon as you apply they should put you on assessed charges until they can fit (they will ask you about number of occupants and for any other large water uses)

I was on assessed charges for 3 months until they could fit my meter and it was a lot less than the rateable charge.

Bigphil1474

When we moved into our newer house in 2024 it was on a non-metered bill which we paid for part of the year. When we got the full years bill in March 2025 it was going to be £1,200 for the year , £100 a month. Our old house was £45 a month, so we contacted the water company to have a meter fitted. As it was, there was a delay in fitting them so they put us on a deemed rate until the meter was fitted around August. The deemed rate for the 2 of us in a 4 bed semi was £54 a month. Having been on the meter for around 9 months, our water bill is gonna be around £40 a month over a typical year at current rates. Having a meter wouldn't put me off buying a house.

matelodave

TBH NOT having a meter might put me off.

Like others above our bill would be more than twice what we are paying even taking into account that we have a garden watering system and I wash our cars and caravan on the drive. £45 a month v £100+ and thats just the unmetered standing charge.

It will be more if I added the RV component but I cant remember what it was when we moved in 16 years ago. Getting a water meter was the first thing we did

Ant555

My unmetered bill increased to the point where I asked for a meter (with a view to returning to unmetered if it didnt save money)

Although I dont waste water and am more conscious of usage, I purposely have continued to use water pretty much as normal - ie washing cars as before, 1 x jet wash of drive so I could see a good comparison.

2 x grown up kids back with us temporarily, so four of us in the house and im still paying about 30% less than on unmetered. The saving isnt as much as I thought, but its a saving.

Note that I know the unmetered amount is based on a historical setting/value and cant be challenged (like council tax bands etc) but our unmetered annual charge has always seemed high in the first place and I dont know why.

Rob5342

I've used online calculators a few times and they always say that a meter would be more expensive than being unmetered for us. For some reason Thames Water say its not possible for us to have a meter despite them having changed the stop taps in the pavement for my house and three of my neighbours to water meter housings. I'm not going to point out they were wrong.

A house having a meter would be an annoyance for me because of the extra cost it would give me, but wouldn't be enough to put me off buying a house as I would be thinking that most houses will be forced to have meters at some point.

I'd just do what suits you, meter or no meter is likely to be a tiny consideration vs all the other things any potential buyer would be looking at.