Help. How do I challenge an excessive water bill?

Kathsue I’ve just seen this. We are in the same situation as you.

In Spring 2019 we called up our water board and told them we had low water pressure. A lady came out and said she thought our pipe was silted up but didn’t detect a leak.

On Monday of this week the board phoned telling us that we had used £1400 worth of water in 6 months which was clearly wrong as there are only 2 of us living in the property. It would have been nice to have been told sooner. Next day a man arrived and told us we were losing 3 litres of water every minute but he could not detect where the leak was. If it’s on “our” side we are liable to fix the leak which may involve digging through our dining room into our kitchen at a cost of thousands. Luckily in this worst case scenario our housing insurance will cover us. Another board worker is coming on Monday.

To add insult to injury, this morning we have been sent a water bill for £1700 payable TODAY. They said they would put the bill on hold while they investigated. Some elderly people would have probably had a heart attack on receiving a letter like this. We won’t pay anything until we have a clearer idea of what is going on.

I urge you to check your insurance policy. Good luck.

Helgawills Why on earth don’t you have a water meter fitted? Your bills will almost certainly plummet, as there are only two of you living there. They give you a year’s trial, then you can have it disconnected if you’re not happy with it. A win-win situation.
I used to help out in our local newsagents, who had bill-paying facilities. Whenever elderly people came in with big water bills to pay I used to ask them how many lived in the house. It was usually just them alone, or as a couple. They often didn’t understand about water meters, and many got them fitted once they knew how easy it was. I was often thanked for saving them £100s of pounds over the year.
Sadly, there are also many elderly people paying high utility bills because they stay with the same provider for many years.

Thank you, GreenGran78, never thought about it, been here 17 years, my daughter was 10 at the time, so obviously been using less the last 7 years.

We are in a council property and some years ago they decided to unilaterally add our water to the rent (we don't use as much as my MIL living alone, still with reasonable water charges, and our rent increased by an inordinately huge amount. We fought the housing authority and requested a meter (several years later still not supplied!) which we suspect will show a huge overcharge. So get your water board to check the accuracy and even if it is correct, don't be bullied into paying more than you can genuinely afford. You will, of course, have to pay eventually but you can make a fair and reasonable offer. Good luck.

Before doing anything else, check that none of your taps are dripping and that all ball cocks are functioning properly.

Then sit down and think. Are you washing clothes, washing up more than previously? Did you use tap water to water the garden last summer, or a hosepipe for cleaning the car.

Have you done any decorating that involved extra use of water in the past year?

Once you are sure that none of your taps or appliances are using too much water, phone the company and say pleasantly that you are at a loss to understand the increased use of water, as you haven't any new appliances and as far as you know any leaks or dripping taps. Ask them if they can check whether the meter is reading accurately.

I hope you get it sorted out.

I live on my own and my water bill is about £260/6months

Also theres a water cap charge if you're eligible for 'watersure' -theres certain rules, but if you have certain medical reasons for using more water for example (skin conditions, or applying creams so must shower often, or OCD(& therefore washing/showering a lot) or having to bathe for arthritis/physio reasons etc, - well theres a few, but you get the gyst- if you have, ask them to put you on that.

We've had problems with the drains in our back garden, and called out Thanes water who sorted it . We didn't have to pay because next doors drains are shared with ours, result!

Yes Greengran, but with water bills they have us over a barrel- as theres one locally governed water supplier‐ thames water, or yorkshire water or united utilities etc. We cant pick& choose for that like we can with gas & electric.Which should be changed i think.?

Ours went almost double when moved (over 8yrs ago) from an 'old street' 3bed house (even though we had a bath/shower in) to a 3bed house with only walk- in shower- on a credit pay half yearly bill- how could charge be almost double? So i asked for a water meter.A good move as through day i was only one in- so not much water use at all- used more when 2 sons came home after (then) school,Now older so then college/uni) especially as one is OCD & always washing or showering.Huge difference.But with us mostly been inside all 3together for most of a year, it crept up again.So back on watersure now.(they can put you on it but can let you come off it if you are not using enough for it to be cost effective for you) But even so even folk not eligible for that can still save loads with a water meter,especially if only one or no people in house all day.

Best of luck, kathsue. I had a similar situation a couple of years ago. When I queried the bill I was told that it would appear that my meter was faulty. I said ‘that’s not my problem as I don’t ‘own’ the meter’. I was asked to check if it was working when I was using water. I refused as I was not going to be grovelling on the ground in my mid-seventies. I was told they couldn’t replace the meter for at least 2 months. In the meantime I had to pay the bill. I got nowhere regardless of the number of phone calls, letters and e-mails I sent. You have no come back, as you can’t change supplier.

Thank you all for your replies. It's good to know I'm not the only one to have this problem.

The very helpful lady at Southwest Water put a hold on the bill and said they would only charge me for an average amount of water usage. She talked me through the actions I should take next.

The meter is turning when I'm not using any water which indicates a leak. I don't have an internal stop-cock and I've listened to the toilets, taps etc but can't hear anything.

I contacted HomeServe who are sending someone to (hopefully) fix the leak. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for now.

If you've got a smart home with Alexa, Google or Hive, you can get a gadget to put on your pipe near where the water comes into the house and it will alert you if there is water running when there shouldn't be. We had one of these (even though we are not on metered water) and we couldn't find the running water anywhere. We actually turned the sensor off thinking it was faulty. It was only when I went to change the bamboo flooring in the bathroom, we realised it was black underneath. When we checked, there was a leak in the pipe going to the bath but we couldn't see any water because it wasn't coming higher than the wooden floor.
Although the sensor is about £65, it will more than pay for itself if you are on metered water.
I have posted a link below but you can get them in lots of places and I don't know if I have posted the cheapest one. Lots of people giving them bad reviews haven't actually given it time to build up a pattern of your water usage which is part of the process of identifying unfamiliar patterns. I have no affiliation with the company linked and don't get paid for this information. I just though it might be useful.

www.screwfix.com/p/hive-leak-sensor/161fv

We have a water meter. Only two of us. We pay £30 a month and don’t scrimp using the water. The washing machine and dishwasher are used every day plus two showers every day. Don’t know if this is a lot or not.

Dear Kathsue,

Water must also have an Ombudsman, and I would Google to sort this out. My water bill has gone down drastically since I finished working, as my income reduced so did my water bill so I only pay just over £4.00 now.

Having previously lived in a new build house with a water meter we had a water meter fitted soon after moving to this house as the rates were quite high. We saved money even with 4 people living here. Now I'm on my own I must be saving a fortune, though I expect my bills will be higher from now on as I retired recently. If you don't already have a meter it is probably worthwhile looking into getting one. The only time I ever got a huge bill the meter had been read incorrectly. It is fitted in the pavement on the edge of the property, so not the easiest thing to read, but I managed it with a little difficulty and the company adjusted the bill when I told them.

We had this too end of last year, our water usage went from 240 ltrs to 540ltrs in three months , and there are only the two of us , we questioned this through United Utilities who agreed it did seem excessive, We have a water meter. The engineers came, dug up the path outside our property and found a leak, we had it fixed and the nice lady in the office also refunded £130 ,