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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

water rates

56 replies

Marney · 30/08/2011 21:50

Just had to pay over two hundred pounds the charges for this year are in total 415.71 we live in a 2 bedroom housing association house .Just dissapointed that the coalition have done nothing about reducing things like this its more for a year than im likely to earn in one month .Im the only wage earner no other income ,Im going to try the water meter option
Just thought people might want to compare the cost this one is United utilities in merseyside. if you are unemployed i think you get some help but we dont mind you you would need help on 67 pound a week

OP posts:

LisasCat · 31/08/2011 08:58

I'm very glad we didn't get a meter, having recently found a leak behind some boards that's probably been dripping for 6 years since the previous tenant did a shit job fitting a shower. I dread to think how many other invisible leaks there might be that we'd get clobbered for on a meter. And as it's taken the letting agent 6 weeks to get their arse into gear to fix our shower, they certainly wouldn't rush to fix anything that was costing us money.

Oh and it takes about 5 minutes of running cold water before it comes through hot, due to the bathroom being downstairs but the boiler upstairs. I try to collect the run off and put it in my water butt, but it would still all add up on a meter.

So instead we pay about £340 p.a. for a 2 bed terrace.

Andrewofgg · 31/08/2011 10:00

LisasCat so other people are being clobbered because you didn't check the place out?

That sounds harsh, but more and more properties will be metered - and you can't go back - so get used to it. As I say - it's like food. What you use, you pay for. If you waste it, you pay more.

welshbyrd · 31/08/2011 10:41

Does anyone know if you can have a meter, in a council house? we pay just over £500 a year, £10.50 a week

LisasCat · 31/08/2011 11:11

Andrew, if we owned a place then we would check it top to bottom, and rectify any problems like leaks. But why should we, as tenants, take on the cost of pulling out panels and lifting floorboards, just to check the workmanship of past tenants and contractors. Surely, for all the crap we have to put up with from wanky letting agents (did you see I wrote they've taken 6 weeks to fix a shower?), I have the right to leave them with the hard work (and costs) of fixing the flaws in the place. Also, it wasn't my dumbass idea to locate a boiler at the furthest end of the house from the kitchen and bathroom, thereby requiring a ridiculous length of pipework between the two.

I don't like wasting water, and not just from a monetary viewpoint but also an environmental one, hence trying to reuse the run off in the water butt. But I fail to see how I could have reasonably been expected to take steps to avoid this leak and any others that may be ongoing. My point was that, with the hindsight of knowing this leak has been dripping away for years, and that there may be others, I'm glad not to have a meter in this house. I was really trying to address an earlier posters question about why anyone might be worse off with a meter.

Apologies for my tone, but as you can guess, you've hit a raw nerve. (6 weeks without a shower, and now the fuckers think I'm going to let them get away with leaving exposed wiring 6 inches off the ground in a house with 2 small children.)

LisasCat · 31/08/2011 11:12

Should have proof-read. That should read "poster's question". Apostrophe crime alert.

mousymouse · 31/08/2011 11:19

lisa if we had a meter as a tennant I would expect my landlord to investigate if the water usage is off the marks of the average usage for a family of my size. I would be on their backs until it is sorted.

CardyMow · 31/08/2011 11:24

Welshbyrd - you can have a meter in ANY property. I was worried when I moved in here 7 years ago, as it was a brand new property, therefore it had a water meter fitted as standard. I was on rateable value in my last, 2-bed flat, with only 4 people, and I was being charged £10 a week 7 years ago. I thought that it would be sooooo much more expensive, having a large family and being on a water meter - I have found that NOT to be the case.

I now have a bill based on 2 adults and 4 dc, and spend £324 a year instead of £520. That's a saving of £196 a YEAR. And I'm in a 3-bed now.

I can see that if you are in a property that may have water leaks, how a meter may not be the best for you - but my friend had a leak behind her toilet - and the water company looked at her previous bills, and dropped the bill to the level of those bills, to give her a chance to get her LL to fix the leak. So she didn't actually have to PAY the massive bill she had been issued, only her normal amount.

smalltownshame · 31/08/2011 11:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

Marney · 31/08/2011 11:29

Just found out I will only have the 67 pounds or whatever the goverment think a single person in a house needs per week to live on from now on .My daughter starts university in a few weeks.I look likely to earn around 100 pouns a week but i will only get 5 pounds the rest will be for rent no i might get 15 when i think what the rent is
But i cant get help with the water rates because i am not unemployed its going to be very cold in my house this winter and my income is likely to be around 67 pounds plus 15 and less in school holdays dont have children to mind before and after school in holidays Will have to try the meter to begin with and maybe look for an old caravan do travellers pay water rates i wonder

OP posts:

Andrewofgg · 31/08/2011 11:48

LisasCat I understand any sympathise. I say only that more and more often it will be the problem of the tenant of let housing as more and more properties are metered. And the benefits of universal metering far outweigh the disadvantages.

Andrewofgg · 31/08/2011 11:48

and sympathise, damn it.

Original poster

Marney · 31/08/2011 11:48

Just realised it will be 67 pounds to live on and five pounds only because the rest of what i earn is going to go on the rent never been able to do maths even if i could earn 200 the future is bleak Cant the goverment at least sort the water rates out and make public transport affordable and create ultra cheap one room accomadation for people who cant wish for any more than that at least you would have some money left

OP posts:

littlemisssarcastic · 31/08/2011 12:48

After reading your post of 11.29 OP, Do people in receipt of means tested benefits or unemployed people get help with their water rates?

I've never had help when I've been on benefits.

LineRunner · 31/08/2011 12:57

When I was a tenant, water rates were always included in the rent.

Is this not the case any more?

littlemisssarcastic · 31/08/2011 12:59

Can I ask if you were on benefits, did housing benefit covered all of your rent including your water rates Linerunner?

mousymouse · 31/08/2011 13:00

line depends. we live in a biggish private estate and the water is included in the lease.

LineRunner · 31/08/2011 13:05

I'm thinking back quite a while now, so please bear that in mind, but when I had a period of unemployment when I was made redundant and before I could find another job. I received dole money, and my rent was covered by Housing Benefit which included water rates. So renting really made sense back then.

littlemisssarcastic · 31/08/2011 13:15

I don't think they do that anymore. A short while ago, a neighbour of mine had a spot check done where a DWP official visited her and explained that landlords used to add the water rates onto the rent, (as well as other things sometimes, like gardening or window cleaning, or laundry, and the tenant claimed housing benefit which covered their water rates and whatever else was 'included' in their rent, and apparently this is not what housing benefit is for.
My neighbour was told if the landlord pays the water rates on behalf of the tenant, or any other services (unless they are communal ie: tenants who live in flats and have their gardening or communal areas cleaned) then the tenant cannot or should not claim housing benefit to cover them and should pay the excess themselves.

I think my post is abit confusing, sorry.

My neighbour also believed that when her daughter left college and went onto JSA, her daughter could claim housing benefit individually for her room at home (at £80 a week), which would be paid to my neighbour...even though my neighbour was in receipt of full housing benefit for her home and getting all her rent paid.
The woman from the DWP explained that close relatives cannot claim housing benefit if they live in the family home.

Hope someone who has more knowledge can confirm whether this is true or not. Knowledge is power as they say.

littlemisssarcastic · 31/08/2011 13:17

Just found this

Seems to explain what I was trying to say in a much simpler to understand way.

wfrances · 31/08/2011 13:36

6 of us here,with a water meter and we pay £24 a month.
my parents up the road (just the 2 of them)no water meter pay £55 a month
very confusing.

lozster · 31/08/2011 14:17

Two people in 4 bed house £180 a year. Water meter was in when we moved in but, based on my ludicrous council tax banding (a whole other thread me thinks), I reckon the water rates would be about 800-900 a year if we didn't have it.

From the posts here there do seem to be some wild variations in costs accrued on a meter.

whackamole · 31/08/2011 16:19

I pay £280 a year with United Utilities in Merseyside, we have a 3 bedroom house which we own. Pretty sure we wouldn't benefit from being on a meter!

CardyMow · 31/08/2011 18:02

No. In England at least, if you are unemployed and on JSA or IS, you still have to pay all your own water rates. And your Gas, Electric and any other bills you may have. So why people think that peopel on benefits live the life of Riley is beyond me...

CardyMow · 31/08/2011 18:02

People

Lainey1981 · 31/08/2011 18:17

Hmm mine was just £215 for 5 months on a metre with Anglian water.
2 bed flat, 2 adults one baby. Gone up from £27 per month with Thames water

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