Water meter? DON'T

When my late husband died in 2008 our water bill was £500.00. I decided to try the water meter for 12 months, my bill for that year was £190.00 a saving of £300.00. This year I pay Welsh Water £18.60 a month, £224.00 approx Ho
w you are paying such a huge sum is beyond me. You should have the meter checked, also check if there is a leak..

Are you able to check your usage online, we are with Anglian water, they have recently changed our old meter for meters that connect with an app where I can see our usage everyday if I want to. I do agree your charges seem heavy, I pay on average just over £40 monthly, that for me and my son who despite my nagging like long showers after a day of heavy manual work. We also use a dishwasher and washing machine.

Lathyrus3

Well, it’s interesting to see the differences in what water authorities charge.

Ours does a single household reduction but Anglia Water (used to live in that area) doesn’t and the charges for unmetered seem to be astronomical. The OPs £55 a month metered would still be saving her £££££.

This can’t be right, can it? That water, the most basic of human needs, is a major, almost unaffordable expense for some in some parts of the+country.

Yes, we have Anglian Water and the bill's just gone up to just over £96 a month.
I'm having a water meter put in tomorrow.
My friend and her husband up the road only pays £35 a month.
I was told on the phone when i ordered that you have to use the meter for 2 years but the surveyor said you can cancel at any time and go back as before and get the standard monthly bill. so don't know.
I would think the water company can detect leaks because they contacted my relative and said there was a leak somewhere and there was. Something to do with the toilet. She got a plumber out to fix it. not with that water company. Anglian Water text her afterwards and thanked her for dealing with problem so they must be able to detect leaks somehow.

Georgesgran There is a single occupancy water rate because I m on it.

I am astounded at the low amount you all pay for water/sewerage. My bill from Severn Trent went up last month to £132 per month. I did resist having a water meter fitted as I live in a large 2 bedroom house which I want to sell.
But I have now asked for a water meter and been told this should reduce my monthly bill to approximately £70. I hope so!!

1summer

I am astounded at the low amount you all pay for water/sewerage. My bill from Severn Trent went up last month to £132 per month. I did resist having a water meter fitted as I live in a large 2 bedroom house which I want to sell.
But I have now asked for a water meter and been told this should reduce my monthly bill to approximately £70. I hope so!!

Sorry 4 bedrooms

My new monthly payments are £44.75 and I live in a flat and don't have a meter…So I would imagine yours is slightly more due to your garden..

you should have Thames Water as your supplier.
meter out in the road, and they told me, a disabled pensioner to go check it when I queried my charges..

Water is a rip off.. sorry, I try not to get angry, but...

NannyC1

Georgesgran There is a single occupancy water rate because I m on it.

Hope you don't mind my asking, but who is your supplier? And do you have a meter or not? It seems that both make a difference.

Obviously we should all be charged accurately for the water we use so meters are a no-brainer. I used to live next door to a chap who washed cars for a living. He turned the hose on at 8.00 in the morning and it only went off when his last client left at the end of the day. Obviously he declined a water meter !

Thames water is now £44+ for a single person in a flat..

Interesting NannyC1 May I ask who is your supplier?

Here, Northumbrian Water have some schemes for low income customers and those in receipt of certain benefits, but not single occupancy. Their rationale is that a single person would use less and have a lower charge as a result. I pay around £30 a month - big house, but I can only use one bath at a time!

Out of interest, does your provider just accept your word, or is it confirmed by the electoral roll?

I was paying £77 per month without a meter, got one fitted and now pay £30 per month, it sounds as though there’s a fault somewhere with yours sadly

Contact The Ombudsman or Citizens Advice as that does not seem right?? Have yougot a 1 person household discount applied? Good luck

No meter here but this years bill went up by a whopping 350 odd pounds... I looked at a meter as we hardly use any either, but after filling in the usual usage per week for everything it wasn't any different in price soI am not switching to one, it feel like daylight robbery though

I was thinking of applying for one to trial. I'm with Welsh Water and my monthly DD has just gone up to £76 from £57, ridiculous, and you should see the crap they're pumping out into the Wye. You can revert back to unmeasured bills within two years if it doesn't save money

Georgesgran

Interesting NannyC1 May I ask who is your supplier?

Here, Northumbrian Water have some schemes for low income customers and those in receipt of certain benefits, but not single occupancy. Their rationale is that a single person would use less and have a lower charge as a result. I pay around £30 a month - big house, but I can only use one bath at a time!

Out of interest, does your provider just accept your word, or is it confirmed by the electoral roll?

Same here Georgesgran, but as I explained above, my bill is below the cap anyway. I think I would be eligible, but it's not worth applying. There's nothing specifically for singe occupancy, as far as I can tell.

My neighbour only found out that he had a leak because his water bill was very high so he turned the stop cock off for 12 hours and the meter was still clicking over.

We pay £22.46 per month for water and waste with Severn Trent. There are 2 of us in the apartment and we are careful, although just recently I am having to water the plants in the pots on my balcony fairly frequently. Don't forget the wartime adage, "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". Not very nice but practical

I should have said that we have a water meter which is read remotely by Severn Trent.

From reading this thread, the norm seems to be about £20-£30pcm for a single person (more for a couple/family). TBH I don't think that's too bad considering what it should provide - safe drinking water and disposal of liquid household waste. My gripe is when water companies don't always provide safe/palatable drinking water and dispose of waste water irresponsibly. My own tap water is horrible. We get water from underground chalk aquifers. The water is excessively hard, tastes horrible and deposits limescale on everything it comes into contact with. I've just had a water softener installed and I've already noticed the difference.

If people are paying a lot more, maybe they should check for leaks.

dayvidg

Could possibly be an underground leak

I agree……this requires further investigation by the water company OP

Had a meter fitted just last week.
My previous bills for Sewage went up to £98 per month, not far short of £1000, per year but Water coming in only £200 per year.
See how it goes now?

We had a water meter fitted some years ago and the bill went down. I'm on my own now. Last year I paid £19 a month, was in credit at year end and will be paying, I think, £28 this year. Yorkshire Water. I understood that after a year the meter could be removed if it was more expensive than a non-meter. I'm stingy with water, sometimes wash up only once a day, don't always flush the loo, have a good wash every day in the wash basin and have a bath only once a week (like in the old days!). I have a diverter tank that takes water from the bathroom that I use that for the garden and a large water butt behind the house that takes rainwater from a short length of guttering at the end of the kitchen.

I pay every 6 months when I get a bill so no monthly DD. I have a meter and my usage is fairly consistant and low - I'm very stingy with my water and only flush the loo when really necessary except if I have guests. When we moved here as a family of four we still saved with a meter. Now I'm on my own I save loads. When my daughter moved back in for 18 months the bill approximately doubled which is what I expected, but then when she moved out I got estimates which were much too high. I read the meter and told them what it was and they re-billed me. If the bill is higher than expected I always check now as they sometimes estimate even though I have a meter! I'm with Thames water so I'll find out how much more it costs when the next bill comes! Hopefully not too much more!
The tip about photographing the meter reading on your phone and enlarging is useful. A passerby told me to do that when I was on my knees and struggling to read it and asked if he could help!