to think water shouldn't be costing this much?

[gogoflo]

In our house each week we have:

7 ten minute showers
2 normal baths
7 bowls of washing up
1-2 loads of washing

We're all out most days between 8 and 5 so toilet usage is minimal.

Yet I received a water bill this morning saying the past 6 months have cost £1000, split almost equally between water and sewage costs. Surely this is extortionate? Friends and their kids all have showers and baths each everyday, do loads of washing, use dishwashers etc yet never seem to complain about the cost of water but it must cost a fortune.

Aibu to think this is really expensive and to ask how much you pay?

We pay £32 a month..

We run the dish washer 4 times a day, washing machine 4 times, 2-4 showers aday, 1 full bath a day, chickens get water every day, dogs water every day, plus bathing 3 dogs a few times a year and when we have pups bathing up to 10 pups once a week in the last few weeks, filling up a pool, we lay fresh grass seed every year, pressure wash the car/patio/fences etc

Four bedroomed detached house, Four of us, but minimum two washloads a day, extra baths/showers sometimes required due to continence issues and psoriasis. £57.00 per month.

Ours is 72 a month so it all depends on where you live.

Mine is £25 per month, more than gas or electricity!

Questions
Is this your first bill at the house?
What does the bill say about units used?
Does it give meter readings for the beginning and end of the six months, or only at the end?

If it is a meter, get them to check it is wired up correctly. My mum got a ridiculous bill last year and it turned out that they had accidentally connected the meters to the wrong houses - her bill was for the family of 5 next door and considerably higher than the bill for one person!

you get no choice about your water company.

check the bill, it will say if you are on a meter. You need to know where the meter is, find it, turn off all taps and see if it is still turning.

but 10 minute showers are very long, especially if they are power showers which use loads of water.

Check for leaks. You don't have a dog or cat who flushed the toilet?

We pay £200 per month. South West Water. :(

We queried a huge water bill...we are now currently trying to arrange workmen/plumbers to dig out the front part of the house to repair a leak....

get it checked!

HercShipwright - my parents are SWW too and pay double per m3 what we do here in Kent. I think it something to do with the amount of coastline they are responsible for (I read that ages ago), which makes the cost higher.

That and the need to pay shareholders a whacking great dividend, yes.

South west water is ridiculously higher than the rest of the UK, hence why we've been getting the pittance assistance from the government. OP if you are in SW, it might be a normal bill, anywhere else and I'd say leak. Our leak in the SW came to £7000 worth, thankfully insurance paid.

Southern water?

We are on a new estate & just had bill corrected as they were charging for water /sewage & then sewage separately. So double charging sewage , was confusion between them and builders.

I pay alot for water £70 per month but even that is less than your bill and we use a lot and I mean a lot of water. Asd son obsessed

Charlie I didn't think landlord could say no to you going on a meter, its your bill. I say this as a landlord although an inexperienced one failing that tell the water co you live alone!

I think we pay sww about £350-£400 a year for 2of us in a house with dishwasher garden etc. after our leak got fixed we checked meter wasn't going rouns to be happy it was fixed - it was so ins guys came back out, turned out meter was faulty too. took a fight, we got the "our meters never break" speech, but sww did replace it foc in the end. I think it was easier than dealing with me!!

Find out first if it is on a meter and then find out where that actually is.

Then, read it, turn all your water off and read it again 30 mins later.

If nobody has used any water and it has gone up then you have a problem.

We did this and the meter was whizzing around, it was a leak when a plumber hadn't fitted a pipe under our site hut properly.

Mine a 2 bed terrace on a metre

Me and DP

2 x deep baths and 1 x shower a day
No dishwasher
3 x a week washing machine

Ours was £450 for just under a year

lildottie - Yorkshire water have said only a home owner can switch to a meter and they would need to speak to the LL. We don't really want to rock the boat either as we pay such reasonable rent! Doesn't mean I don't moan about it though...

I still find it odd you pay for water in England. That's a lot of money to pay for an essential need.

If it is a new development it WILL have a meter somewhere.
OP we can only speculate if you don't come back and answer questions.

We are a family of 5, plants in garden, dog, chickens, dishwasher, etc., billed separately for supply and waste. We pay £27 per month for supply and £96 per year for waste. So around £35 pm all in.

I think Yorkshire water have advised incorrectly Charlie, I had a water meter installed in our last rental property, I informed the landlord but didn't ask as that was the advice of severn Trent at the time.

Have found and read the meter which hasn't moved on too much from when the water company read it two weeks ago. The last bill was an estimate rather than a read so have contacted them to see when the last actual read was taken as I suspect it may have been a long time ago and therefore why my bill is so high is previous tenants weren't supplying reads and water company didn't take any either.