Can this be right - water bill

[Cheapasscrewtoprose]

I’ve just had a bill from the water company saying out direct debit will be £400 per month!! Currently paying around £40. It says we’re using 4200 litres per day. I’m freaking out. We’re not exactly thrifty with water use but this has to be wrong right??! I’m off to try and find the meter.

You need to turn off the inside stop cock. Take a meter reading. Then leave it an hour (or if you are losing that much 10 minutes may do) and take another reading.

Do NOT enter into a reduced payment offer with them unless you fully understand the implications. Some water companies are putting APs on peoples credit files immediately - this may stop you getting a good remortgage deal as an arrangement to pay is classed as adverse credit.

No that's an insane amount of water, either there has been an issue with their system/an incorrect meter reading entered or there is a leak.

I'd give them a call to try and resolve it but if that doesn't get you very far then as pp said turn off your stop cock and see if the meter is still ticking over.

We’ve just turned the stop cock off and the numbers are still going round. I can’t understand this though- we’d notice that amount of water leaking?? We have no damp issues.

It’s probably an underground leak so you need to contact the water company.

Phone them, get them to come and check yr meter and see if u have an underground leak.

It's probably underground so not visible, give them a call and they should come out. Might take a few days as jobs where raw sewage is an issue are prioritised.

average use is quoted as 180 litres per person per day so unless you've been filling up a swimming pool it seems most likely that your meter is broken! That's a large amount to be using in leakage per day, as you say you'd probably have noticed it by now.

I had a similar problem 20 years ago.

The meter had been manually read and they had included the number after the decimal - making my bill the 10 times what it should be. They were awful to deal with back then, saying I must have a leak etc etc. Never even got an apology when I was proved right.

Doesn't sound like that with yours though if the meter is going round. Can you take a short video showing it going round when all taps etc are off. It definitely sounds like a faulty meter. - You may have to escalate above the call centre staff though.

What a strange post. It's blindingly obvious from the OP that there's either a leak or a meter fault. So that's what needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Someone from the water company is coming round for an inspection. The person I spoke to on the phone said it’s probably a leak and we won’t have to pay for a water that’s leaked. I feel calmer now!

We had a leak in the garden. Grass was so much greener all of a sudden which alerted us.
Given the leak was on our land and between the meter in the pavement and pipe into the house we had to pay a plumber to dig down and repair a split pipe. £350.
Water company only charged the usual bill and we got £100 towards plumber costs. The water company will not reimburse if it happens again.

Every householder or tenant should know how to turn water off at source, be it at the stop tap under the sink (or wherever it’s located) or at the meter in the pavement or road. In an emergency it can be really helpful to stop further water damage.

Yeah they’ve said when someone comes out they’ll assess whether they will pay or we’ll have to claim on house insurance. I think the leak is likely under our drive as when we turn the external stop cock off the mater stops. So the leak is somewhere under the house/drive I think.

Could you by any chance have a shared water supply? We had a similar issue (though not as much water being used) and after months of Thames Water faffing about eventually got them to understand that there was one water pipe outside our house that came into our water pipes upstairs in the loft, with one of the pipes then supplying next door.

We are now paying £26 a month for a household of 2.

We also got told by Thames that we would be liable for any leak found on our property, and that we would have to make good eg our front path being dug up by them to search for leaks.

Thames Water was awful in general. At one point accused my husband of lying about us not having a water tank! Took 12 months to resolve the issue.

We also got told by Thames that we would be liable for any leak found on our property, and that we would have to make good eg our front path being dug up by them to search for leaks.
This is correct, you're responsible for any pipework once it crosses the boundary of your property (both water and sewage pipes unless it's a drain that serves more than one property).

I had this (though not nearly as much). They advised that if the leak was internal it was mine to pay, if external it was their issue. So looks like yes you'll be fine, thankfully.

Turned out that it wasn't a leak, they'd mixed up my meter with the neighbour's

I lived in a block of flats though, so that might be the reason they said it would be their issue if external...hopefully you're not responsible

@NotAnotherBathBomb flats are different because the pipe serves more than one property. Basically anything external that's shared is the responsibility of the water company, anything that serves just your property (both internal and external) is the property owner's responsibility.

This makes sense. Fingers crossed for OP🤞🏽

I’m currently under the impression that I may have to pay for the damage to be put right but not the actual water that’s been lost through the leak. So if they have to dig up a bit of my drive to find the leak I’ll be paying to get it fixed.

It'll be a mains leak. Have you got insurance? That should cover the bill.

I’ve got normal house insurance. I used to have a specific insurance for this very thing and cancelled it when we moved house. I’d payed it for years and thought what are the chances of this happening 😂

That is correct I’m sure. If the leak is between the meter and your house, ie on your property, then you will have to pay for the repair and any remedial work. If it’s external, ie before the meter, then it is the responsibility of the utility company.

Im not sure if they will fix the leak if it’s your responsibility and charge you off if you have to find your own plumber. I guess once the leak is detected, you will be expected to get it sorted quickly, they won’t want to keep paying for the wasted water for very long! Although our water company seem to leave leaks under pavements for weeks!

i hope it gets sorted soon.

It may be an odd post I made but I don’t always return to threads. I initially suggested turning off the stop cock. I then thought about the fact she may need to pay this bill as if it’s between the mains and her internal stopcock she may be liable. If the op is responsible for the bill then they may offer a payment plan to pay the large bill. I wanted to warn her of the risk of setting up a plan with them without asking if it will affect her credit history if it is recorded as an Arrangement to pay on her file. It may not be relevant today but it may be after the cause has been established 🤷‍♀️.

They’ve said I won’t have to pay for the leaked water. They’ll do meter readings once it’s fixed to work out how much we would have used and how much of it is leaked. But it sounds like I’ll need to pay for fixing the leak.