The water company says we're not using enough water

[PatterofaMinion]

...and they want to send out an engineer to check the meter.

I spent 20 minutes on the phone yesterday trying to convince the stroppy line manager that no, we don't use very much, and that yes our meter seems to be working, but she talked to me like I was a criminal or a naughty school girl.

Does anyone have their bill to hand and can tell me what they use?

In short we are a family of one adult and three youngish children, we probably have a bath once a week, (our bathroom isn't properly finished yet so it's a faff) and use the washing machine once or twice a week. No dishwasher, no garden hose, no shower.

Our last reading showed we used 7 cubic metres in 3 months. To me this sounds about right (having done the usage calculator which estimates 30 cubic metres a year) and yet they disbelieve we can possibly be using that little.

She has grudgingly put our direct debit on hold (they said on the bill they were increasing it to £20 a month, when in fact we've used £10.61 in the last quarter) and is sending an engineer out to check the meter (which was put in last October, and checked again in December after our plumber had to move it about 2ft). All was found to be fine.

So AIBU to think this is low but acceptable water usage or are they being perfectly reasonable wanting to make me feel like I'm trying to defraud them?

I suppose they have to, really. Though fuck knows how you'd go about tampering with a water meter

When they inspect it and find it to be perfectly functioning, I'd make a polite complaint about the way you were spoken to.

I think they are legally required to check the meter if your usage is unusual, so I'd try not to be offended, even if she had an offensive tone!

7 cubic metres in 3 months does seem very low for a family with one adult and three children. You can explain it, but statistically, it's on the very low side.

I'd let them check the meter just so that everyone is happy that it's working, and you don't end up with a huge bill in the future if it turns out that something is wrong, or they still aren't happy.

I don't think my water bill would be much use to you, because there's only two adults here, but we do run the dishwasher/washing machine almost daily and both shower a lot.

Wow take my hat off to you - that's really low! How the hell do you manage with one or two machine runs a week? We have one a day! I think they should be congratulating and thanking you!

2 adults and 2 young children in our house and we use 7 or 8 cubic metres a month on average.

Wait, were they going to increase your bill to £20 without inspecting it?! So basically, "even though it says you're paying us for what you use, we don't think it's enough, personally, so give us more money"?

That is appalling.

it does seem very low, just flushing the loo would use more in our house. plus washing up by hand often uses more water than a dishwasher.

You bath ONCE a week??

We have just had massive troubles with our water company.

We got a massive bill and discovered that our digital water meter was faulty. They have just fitted a new one and we are using about 2.5 cubic metres a week.

We are a family of four though and I like my baths.

Tell them to come out and inspect the meter. If they wont there is a water board ombudsman who was very helpful to us with our problems.

Wow that is low!

Our last bill said we'd used 55 cubic metres in the last quarter. Which was a bit more than usual as we had a leaky tap that took a while to fix properly.

2 adults, 1 child. Washing machine and Dishwasher daily, plus daily showers and baths.

Based on the average usage scale on the bottom of the bill we use less than a two person household.

I can't see how them checking the metre would be a problem, if all is fine then they'll have no reason to ask again if you continue to have such low readings.

Oh thank you Jenny, that's great to know. Yes, maybe it is faulty but I wouldn't know how to confuse it myself or tamper with it, so it's their fault if it is.

We did move it but we're in a flat in a house with two flats, the feed comes in through the bathroom floor, the meter was installed at waist height right by the toilet with a pipe sticking out of the wall and it looked stupid and wouldn't fit behind the new plasterboard - so the plumber walked in and said he could move it down 2 feet and it would be fine.

We then realised this was illegal, called them, in fear of prosecution and they sent out an engineer to inspect it. He found it all to be fine.

I'm not overly fussy about housework, and the children aren't old enough to smell funny without a daily shower, maybe that is a bit shoddy but to have to try and justify it to someone you don't know is uncomfortable.

It's a renovation project and sadly I don't have a lot of time to do tiling with a toddler around! I'm sure our usage will go up when we have a proper bathroom to luxuriate in.

Tbh the pressure is so crap though that it takes about half an hour to run a bath anyway.

That sounds impossibly low. If you only use water for flushing the toilet you'd use up that allowance over 3 months with fewer than 8 flushes a day. I'm not surprised they think your meter is faulty.

I suppose I am worried they will want to take off all the plasterboard and check we haven't done something bad to the pipework which would mean we're not being charged, or something...I hate having suspicion over my head and I hate being wrongfully accused.

Also I hate having some big bloke messing about in my bathroom! Visitors means I have to do cleaning

Collaborate - where are you getting that info from?

We had this happen back in the 90s. At the time it was just me and my boyfriend, so washing machine on twice a week, 3 min shower every day and minimal water use for washing up (about half a bowl of water once a day).

We didn't get a phone call, they just changed the meter without telling us. We only found out because the engineer forgot to switch the water back on after he'd finished.

I think we use more like 7-8 m^3/month - 2 adults, 2 kids, but we get through more showers and washing machine loads than you, and also have a dishwasher. I think they are just checking out consupmtion that doesn't meet their model of the world.
Mind you, I rang the water board up after a bill to say our meter wasn't working, and we HAD used more than 10m^2 in half a year. I got told thay meters don't break. 6 months later they read the meter again, and it hadn't moved. They changed the meter, but didn't charge us for any water over about 10 months!

LOL at meters don't break that's quite funny.

waterwise suggests that modern toilets use 4l/flush or 6l/flush for a full flush.

7m^3/3months is 7000litres in 90 days, or 77.7l/day.
That could be 20 flushes if your efficient, or 6 flushes if you have an old style toilet (13l/flush).

we Just got a 6 month bill and including sewerage etc for 2 of us we are using £26/month with Northumbrian water.

that's 2 showers a day - a bath maybe once a week, dishwasher twice a week and washing machine twice a week.

I think we probably flush the loo about 5 or 6 times a day - the youngest is in nappies, the older ones always forget to flush after a wee

We do have a new toilet with dual flush.

I estimated for a 10l flush. 1 cubic metre is 1000l. So that's 700 flushes in a quarter (90 days). That amounts to just under 8 a day.