£60 a month for water is ridiculous, right??

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Posting here for traffic... Sorry for the dull subject matter!

Just received new water bill for the year, almost £60pm direct debit. Up from £43pm.
It's a rateable value bill, now thinking of switching to metered bill. Anyone have any experience of this working out cheaper? Only DS and me in smallish 3 bed semi.

I cannot fathom how the bill can possibly be £60pm! Will get on the phone tomorrow but wondered if anyone would care to share their experiences of water meters?

TIA

That sounds outrageous! We are metered and your bill annually is more than double ours - 2 adults and 2 teens with two bathrooms, dishwasher and a couple of loads of washing a day (mainly due to teens using the laundry basket like a wardrobe - grrr). Very few baths but lots of showers, I do shout about people wasting water but not sure it has much effect! So your bill seems way too high to me.

Since getting a meter my water bill is now half what it used to be. It helps that I have two soap dodging teenagers- good boys!

Ours is way more and is rateable at B. Bloody South West Water - it is so high here. Good luck getting some savings!

Gosh, that's an awful lot! We halved our bill by changing to a water meter - that's 2 adults and 1 child in a 3 bed and we don't exactly scrimp on water usage. We pay around £30 a month for supply and waste water.

Do you live in Devon?

We are in the south West and pay £100 per month on a meter. Fucking ridiculous.

Rateable value is based on the old rates system from the 19 70s and dates back to the days when councils provided water services. Rateable values stopped being updated by the valuation office when the poll tax came in to force. That's why every property built or sub divided since 1989 is on a meter.
(rooting through my memory for everything I remember from working for a water company )

£27 pcm, metered. I'm on my own most of the time (but when DC come home they seem to spend most of their time in the shower - and I spend most of mine washing their clothes )

Bumwad, UU & no meter here too.

Last year's rise was from 36.44 to 37.43 (but only 10 payments, & the first one in April was 32.51).

This year's statement has come but I can't remember what the increase was & can't be arsed to look atm but around £38 sounds right (3-bed terrace in E Lancs)

Ok, meter it is I think!

Thank you all for being so helpful!

We do have a dishwasher which goes on once a day and do 5/6 loads of washing per week. We don't use the shower (its crap) and share a daily bath so hoping when metered we'll be better off!

House is late 60s/early 70s if that makes a difference?

Bloody hell, Nacho

I had heard SW Water were awful but that's a ridiculous amount of money!

Yes that's right Low it's 10 months not 12!
(Preston)

I'm midlands Jux

£100 per month?! Jesus!

Cost will depend on where you are in the country. Ours is rateable, £65pm. We are a family of 4 in a 4 bed house, SW England. I've thought about changing to metered but I find it easier to budget with rateable and we can do all the washing we need to with two little ones! ( Speaking as an ex water company employee...).

That's MAD. One adult, 2 children in a 3 bed house here, and we pay £13 pcm on a meter - for the first 6 months I was paying more, submitted a reading, and not only did Anglian Water reduce the monthly payment, they refunded me £130 automatically as I had built up so much credit.

Ours is 85 a month non- meter but it's a biggish house with a huge garden. I don't waste water but I like not having to worry about leaks or watering the garden. (I do use water butts etc but even so I use the hose pipe too)

We were paying £785 a year unmetered with 4 of us in a 4 bed house in the SE. We paid in 10 instalments, so didn't pay anything in Feb or March. When DD & DS moved out we changed to a meter at the end of January last year and we got a refund because we'd already paid for the whole year up to April.
We now use about £30 a month (that's both water in and water out) so a big saving - we could probably save more if DH was a bit more careful!

£42 a month on a meter for us. 5 people. Lots of washing and dishwasher. Water irrigation for veggies in garden in summer. We don't scrimp at all.

We were paying £65 a month before getting a meter and that was at least 5 years ago.

I would definitely swop.

We pay 43 a month to Yorkshire Water. Fixed rate, not metered. Might ask about getting a meter, though!

We're on a meter and I thought ours was bad but yours is even worse and you're not even in the South West.

Rateable value was obviously total bollocks as we live in a council tax band A, small 2 bed semi and ours was £40 pm before I tried to get a meter

Less than £10 for a family of 5 sounds a bit like the water version of a magic chicken though unless very little washing goes on. .

Definitely get them to come and put a meter in. Just me and OH and we pay 25 quid a month on a meter. Previous owners were paying about 40 on rateable value.

I'm metered here, local it's £55/60 unmetered pcm, I pay £20 metered pcm and that's for 2 adults and a bath/shower obsessed teenage DD.

Another South West Water here, paying £110 a month. I knew we were in the most expensive region for water, but the disparity is quite surprising.