South West Water area anyone? What do you pay?

[MustardPowder]

I am in the process of sorting out an elderly relative's affairs. I have her PoA and have been putting her papers into order etc. I don't get the PoA certificate for a couple of weeks so can't yet talk direct to companies on her behalf. I'm also in a different region.
She's on her own in a 2 bedroomed bungalow (no water meter) and I am shocked that her water bill for the year is £1237! She has a DD of £123 a month for water.
Is this typical for the region? Is it easy to get a water meter fitted there?
That seems an exhorbitant amount for an old lady's water!

That is horrendous. We live in south west, although with Wessex water I think.
We are a 3 bed bungalow (2 kids, mountains of washing) on a water meter and pay about £600 and I thought that was insane! My parents don’t have a meter and pay about £400 a year

We're with SWW. 3 bed house, family of 4 and pay about £80 month which I feel is pretty horrific!

We are in SE Cornwall on a water meter. Pay £85 per month for house of 3. Mum who also lives locally pays £30 monthly on water meter for just her in a small bungalow. Easy to get a water meter fitted as we did this when she moved in. Something is definitely not right so certainly needs further investigation.

We're in Somerset, no water meter, 3 bed house and pay about £20 a month. So £200 ish a year with Wessex water. Make sure the payments are going to the right company, someone might have scammed your relative in the past to sort out their water payments and then added their own massive 'admin fee'.

Unless there has been many, many years of no payment of water rates in the past then I think your relative is well overpaying for their water, or they are paying for the whole street/village.

Also, you can talk to people before evidence of having PoA, if your relative is able to they can tell people over the phone they want you to discuss their account with them. We did this recently for an elderly neighbour who didn't know how to pay her phone bill as her local bank had closed and she always did it there. We rang BT, put it on speaker phone so we could all hear and said what we needed to do. Neighbour then did the security stuff and gave permission for me to sort it out, the problem arises if your relative is not able to do this.

Something must be be very very wrong.
There's no debt to pay off, the bill in front of me has a starting balance of nil.
The sewerage charges are £822! Incoming water £459.
I can't imagine there is anything splendiferous about the sewage system in that area. It's a 1980s built estate on the outskirts of a coastal town. Unless all the old dears are signed up for some sort of special level of service that shines their shit for them!
Anyhow, I'll be on to this ASAP. Thanks for reassuring me I wasn't totally out of touch with today's prices!

Meant to say - what will complicate matters in any discussion with the water board at this point is that the bill is still in her husband's name, he died in 2002! So I can't get him to give his wife permission in order to give me permission to talk to them. And she'd find that quite upsetting. I think I'll have to look out his death certificate.
Strewth.

I'm with Wessex water, in a 3 bed bungalow, Somerset with a water meter. For last 6 months [end May -end Nov] my bill was a total of £81.61, I paid it last week. And that was a lot of watering of the garden too.

So I don't pay more than £170-180 for the whole year. I have water meters everywhere I go as soon as I move in, they are easily and quickly installed.

Sww are notoriously bad when dealing with this situation. I was in a similar situation, my step mother had passed away and her name was on the bill. My father was in hospital and I had poa. They were awful.
Sww also think nothing of extra charges to locals who pay extra for the amount of holiday homes in the area.
Good luck!

I have heard that water bills in Cornwall are high. I think that is where you may be.

I'm in Cornwall and water bills are nowhere near that high. However, in our previous (rented) property, we couldn't get a water meter for some spurious reason from SWW. It was a really old cottage.

Their website is quite useful though:
www.southwestwater.co.uk/globalassets/document-repository/charges/sww-household-charges-scheme-2018-19.pdf

www.southwestwater.co.uk/my-water-meter/estimate-meter-savings/

The reason they are so high are because of the massive coastal area apparently. Devon and Cornwall have the highest water rates in the country. Devon hear 2 bed flat on a water meter and we pay £100 a month. Oh but we get a £12 discount which means fuck all when u think about it. Robbing bastards.

£83 here. Totally ridiculous amount for us let alone yours with an elderly lady.

Could she be paying back pay as a result of under paying? That's why ours is what it is.

Water bills down here are horrendous. As she wasn't on a meter it is possible that it is correct unfortunately.
The sewerage charges include cleaning up the massive coastline that we have.

SW water, Plymouth for me, I'm in a one bed bungalow, moved in last year, SW Water wanted to charge me over £600 every six months, I had to fight with them to get a meter installed, they came up with all kinds of excuses on why they couldn't do it, finally got citizens advice behind me and they fitted me with a meter, also applied for the SW Water care tariff, and now pay just over £20 per quarter.

It depend on the rateable value of the property
www.southwestwater.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/bills/how-is-my-unmetered-bill-calculated/?category=13

Me and my partner live in a 4 bed house and we pay £25 a month water with SWW

North Somerset here. 2 bed house,water meter. I pay £20 a month.

SWW here. Metered.

Its been £31 a month for the past 12 months.

Dishwasher on x 2 daily - Eco Wash

Washing machine x 5 weekly

Loo always being flushed

Showers x 2 daily

Bath x 3 weekly

Plus washing up other items

I have just got the new bill, its going up to £35 a month.