To refuse to pay our water bill?!

[Mooblies]

We're just moved from a 3 bedroom house to a smaller 2 bedroom house.

Our water bill at our previous property was £30 per month. We have just spoken to the water company and apparently we will now be paying £800 per month as the new property is on a meter and cannot be taken off a meter.

We are already paying an extra £170 per month rent (it's gone up so much over the last 5 years!) and are really upset at having to find and extra £500 or so a year for water

Of course it would. What we currently have is a patchwork of disparate companies with no coherent strategy and massively different costs and infrastructures. SWW, to be fair, inherited the most coastline in the UK by a significant margin, years of under investment and an existing infrastructure that was completely not fit for purpose at the same time as new rules on short landfall pipes, the use of lead piping, beach cleanliness etc came in, and at the same time as the improving climate led to a massive increase in people coming down here for holidays (the last few years may have reversed that trend but in the late 90s and early 00s we had fablas weather down here and tourism boomed. Which put extra stresses on the infrastructure). Instead of those costs being spread over the whole population, they are concentrated on one of the lowest density populations in the UK. It's ludicrous. :(

If you had a friendly neighbour who wasn't on a meter I guess you could fill up from their garden tap!

I gotta question: in England, does your water bill include waste water treatment/sewerage, or is that a separate bill?

Our water bill, in Ontario Canada, is about 90% fixed charges, and only 10% usage. The amount used is then used to calculate waste water/sewerage charges.

In case anyone is interested...
An average month is £35, with only maybe £2 of that being the actual water used (the only thing we can control). The rest is fixed charges, sewerage charges, pipe replacement levy, etc etc and so forth. The sewerage charge is five or six times as high as the water charge, not counting all the fixed charges.

Long-time lurker-1st post, be nice!

So (gulp) i actually work for the billing department of a water board. OP your bill has been estimated based on the average consumption of the number of occupiers that live in your property. Take a meter reading at least 2 weeks after you've moved in and give the water board a call, they will recalculate a more accurate plan.

Yes water boards can take a customer to court and do so often, however will go down the route of Debt collection agencies first. It is against your human rights for any water board to cut off your supply due to non-payment. There is nothing in place at the moment that would mean a reduction in the water the you can use to be capped either.

There are currently no plans to make metering compulsory.

In regards to capping the rate the previous posters have mentioned, watersure is fixed rate for people with either 3 or more children under 19 or if someone in the household has a medical condition causing higher water usage than otherwise. on top of the above criteria you MUST also be in receipt of a means-tested benefit.
HTH :)

Judgiemental - Thank you, that's really helpful, great first post!

HOW can you waste a fabulous nickname like that on lurking, Judgie

Dive on in!

GOW there is an allowance within the bill for waste/sewerage, based on the consumption if you are metered, plus for supply. Varies hugley by area . We pay max £25 pcm in SE for 4 of us, less than my mum on her own in Midlands.

safflower says she is paying "for both waters".there is only one water.DO NOT PAY TWICE.SEWAGE SERVICE SHOULD BE PAID FOR BY THE WATER SUPPLIERS ,WHO IN TURN "SELL" IT TO YOU.....I HAVE BEEN RELIABLY INFORMED (ESSEX&SUFFOLK WATER) THAT SUPPLIERS PAY NOTHING FOR THE CLEANED WATER......YOU ARE PAYING SEWAGE COMPANIES TO CLEAN WATER FOR SUPPLIERS TO CHARGE YOU FOR.THIS IS NOT LOGICAL SENSE.DO NOT DO IT.