Astronomical Thames Water Bill HELP

Flora23
Flora23 Posts: 4 Newbie
in Water bills
Hi everyone,

I live in a 4 bedroom semi-detached house with just my husband. We usually pay about £24 per month for our water bill and we have a water meter which isn’t newly installed. We just had a phone call today saying we owe them nearly £2000 for a 6 month period Jul 2018- Jan this year claiming we have used about 630m3 of water! There is no way we can have used this amount. However because when I have taken the meter reading today and the usage has been normal for the 6 months from this jan to this July they won’t send out anyone to investigate ( for info our usage in the last 6 months has been about 70m3). We cannot figure this out, if there was a leak it wouldn’t have corrected itself.

Has anyone else had anything similar happen?

They want to put up our direct debit to 350/month!!

Any advice?

Thanks

Comments

  • Green_hopeful
    Green_hopeful Posts: 626 Forumite
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    Telephone and provide an updated meter reading. Might be the bill is an estimate.
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,606 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    edited 12 July 2019 at 8:03AM
    Have you checked your bills against meter readings - if so you should be able to see if the bills actually reflect the readings and if there really was a massive jump.

    Did you not suspect that summat was wrong when you got a bill with a much higher reading and check the meter. Go back over your bills to see if the readings are consistent.

    Have you been checking the bills and ensuring that they do actually reflect your consumption or have they been estimates and they've now caught up.
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • Flora23
    Flora23 Posts: 4 Newbie
    Hi,

    As i said I provided an updated meter reading yesterday ...
    Meter reading in jul 18 was 3570, in jan 19 was 4202, yesterday was 4271, that’s all I have and clearly you can see the huge jump in the 6 months jul-jan 19
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036 Forumite
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    Flora23 wrote: »
    Hi,

    As i said I provided an updated meter reading yesterday ...
    Meter reading in jul 18 was 3570, in jan 19 was 4202, yesterday was 4271, that’s all I have and clearly you can see the huge jump in the 6 months jul-jan 19


    Presumably the Jul 18 reading was estimated??


    Were previous readings Estimated?
  • Flora23
    Flora23 Posts: 4 Newbie
    No it was an actual reading as far as i know?
  • Uxb1
    Uxb1 Posts: 732 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper
    For an example of a Thames Water bill it is listed as "type of reading" and underneath is says in my case "Actual" and then on the right the reading value in m3.
  • dogshome
    dogshome Posts: 3,877 Forumite
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    Best bet is to get a photo on a digital camera, download it to your computer and send it to TW - Such a photo has the date and time it was taken buried in it
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036 Forumite
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    Flora23 wrote: »
    No it was an actual reading as far as i know?


    You need to find out for certain; an estimated reading is the most plausible explanation.
  • Flora23
    Flora23 Posts: 4 Newbie
    Ive just checked on the bill and they were actual readings.

    actual reading jul 18 = 3570
    Actual reading jan 19 = 4202

    Therefore saying we’ve used 632m3 of water which is ridiculous.

    the last 6 months is 69m3 from actual readings
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Rampant Recycler
    Contact the Consumer Council for Water for their help.


    https://www.ccwater.org.uk/
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