Anyone had outrageous water bills? Possible faulty meter

[Mittens67]

My water usage has more than quadrupled this year according to my water meter. Nothing has changed in my water consumption which my previous bills show had been the same for years.
I actually use far less than the average daily amount due to my disability because I can’t use the bath or shower but now according to my water company’s online calculator I am apparently using the amount they would estimate for a family of four!
The water company has been less than helpful in my attempts to get to the bottom of this.
There is no sign that I have a leak internally or externally. It’s a detached property so presumably not being affected by any neighbour’s use.
I have asked them to investigate to see if my meter is faulty. They argue that this hardly ever happens, and faulty meters are much more likely to under charge than over charge.
Has anyone had an issue like this?
I have seen lots about faulty energy meters leading to ridiculous bills for customers but haven’t seen much about the same issue with water meters.

I had a really weird situation last year. I have a water meter. In 2022 we had a family of 5 Ukranian refugees living with us, as we as me, now ex husband and our 3 kids.

So obviously water usage went up.

Ukrainians left to get their own place. Divorced. January 2024 to August 2024 bills were really high. Commensurate with when 10 people in house. I thought to myself hmm that's high. Then just paid it and moved on. Cost of living etc.

Then in August.. I got a letter saying I was hundreds of pounds in credit. That the usage was way down (I think they said 1 cubic metre in 3 months).

So for the next 2 quarters I didn't need to pay anything and now I'm still in credit but bills at normal level. I don't think I really got to the bottom of it but it seemed like even though I had a meter the bills were estimated and then they checked the meter against the estimate and realised I was in credit.

Not sure that helps you.. but it does happen!

Thank you @MontyDonsBlueScarf

We have similar but are billed in the old way not off the meter because they can't work out what each of the houses is using. Suggest you ask for similar and for each of the houses to pay there own flat rate.

Being rural we don't have mains sewage so we have a much reduced bill but pay a proportion of our shared waste emptying costs once or twice a year

A water New meter meter fitted March 4 , no warning from the supplier , read meter 4th April and was startled to see 1124 m3 of water used , did all the leak tests , meter still turning with house stop cock isolated , Water company will investigate . The new meter says I have gone from the average of 54m3 every 6 months to 1124 m3 a month. that is 1.5m3 an hour?

Glad I stumbled across this thread as I’d been assured water meters ‘can’t’ be faulty. I’ve just been told by my water company that the house we’re renovating at the moment (so, not living in full-time) may have a water leak. Family have popped by to check and the meter isn’t budging. No signs of a leak visible anywhere.

Apparently the latest remote reading they have (so not actually read by a human) says we used almost 1500 litres in a week, out of the blue and after months of tiny readings. One person was there at the time in question so using a very small amount of water. We don’t even have a washing machine plumbed back in. Feeling a bit stressed about it all tbh.