£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

SWW here, currently paying £60.50 pcm on metre. We didn't choose to have a metre; the last occupant was a single lady living on her own in our four bed house. We use the washing machine on average 6 times a week, dishwasher daily, and the four of us (five if you include the dog and her post-walk spray down!) have a shower or bath daily. Sometimes I have two . In the summer we use a mixture of water butt and hose to keep veggies irrigated.

If you are on benefits or get Tax credits and have 3 or more children or have someone in your family who has a medical condition that requires the use of a lot of water, you can apply for the Watersure scheme, which will cap your bill to the average bill of your area.

You have to be on a water meter, or have applied to be put on one, to be given the Watersure scheme. Every water supplier must provide the scheme.

Another thing worth knowing is that it's illegal for a water supply company to cut off your water supply.

Some of these bills are horrendous. I baulk at our £27 per month (non-metered). I'd cry at £85 per month for water!!

Thanks all for taking the time to reply

Bill is a joint bill (sewerage and 'usage')

I'll have a chat with my neighbours I think and see how they pay

I think I'm most pissed off confused about how the bill can increase by £17 a month! A £200 increase a year, how can they justify that?!

(... and yes that includes sewage fees)

Half of its sewage. We are not on mains sewage and ours is 30 a month, no meter, family of 6, animals and vegetables!

Everyone I know on a meter pays far more even when they are frugal.

if I'm not on a meter, how would the the extra water wastage from a hypothetical leak be monitored?

Contact your water board and ask them to investigate a suspected leak. They have diagnostic equipment to tell the location of the leak, and whether it is within your property boundary (your responsibility to fix) or on common land ( they must fix.)

Depends how many people in your household, Martin Lewes (Money Expert) says if you have less people than bedrooms, water meter. I always understood they were really expensive. 6 years ago we lived in a tiny 3 bed semi cottage, paid £23 per month. Now detached, (2 beds) pay £8 a month with a meter was amazed! You can always change back. it also depends where you lived, I gather folk living around the Bath area have HUGE water bills.

That is just supply of water, waste is calculated at 90% of that.

We pay £60 a month too, 4 people, 3 bedroom house, we pay 2 different companies, one for water usage and one for waste. All these posters with low payments, does that include waste?

My waterbill on a metered property was worked out to be £64 thats 1 adult and 3 small children, im on watersure which brings my bill down to £34 a month (if i actually use less they will only debit my account that much), this includes sewerage. I get a bill every month for interest purposes only and in December when i had a load of family staying my actual usage was £37 my general usage is normally around £30, this is with wessex water.

£10 a month 3 bed house.

we pay 60 a month essex and suffolk water

i do use alot though an dont have showersonly baths-so wont be swtiching

They can charge what they like, and are putting up rateable charges to encourage meters. Which will be compulsory soon.

Small overcrowded island with drinkable tap water.

BTW I used to be in the Thames region and the bill halved on a meter. Here in severn Trent it is cheaper with no meter, but also no drainage. We are still careful with use.

Going to make a political off-topic point here, but when you think about it, 60 pound is pretty cheap when compared to other things you buy. Food, television, mobile phone, etc.

My Direct Debit is £37 per month but I had to pay an additional £190 for August-December because according to Southern Water my weekly usage (or is it useage?) Is 4 m3 per week. It is just me, dd and a dog here, with an occasional guest. I have cut down our showers to every other day and have started using launderette to reduce the amount of laudry I do at home. We are out most days at school/ work, and even when we are in, I can't figure out how we can be using almost 700 litres a day. Southern Water are saying that there are no leaks, so I have no choice but to pay what the meter shows. Last weekend we went away Fri-Sun and yet still the meter registered 3 m3 for the last week.

Our rateable water bill was £71 a month (Wales). We went on a meter with first direct debit of £49 a month which has now been reduced to £35 a month. Large detached house with family of four who use a lot of water. We can also swop back within the first year of we wanted to (we don't!)

Devon has the highest water rates in the UK, because our coastline is miles and miles and miles long. We pay for it to be kept clean and useable through our bills. The more coastline you have the higher your bill will be. When we had that awful boat washed up on the beach and everyone from everywhere came down here looting, we had to pay to clean up that mess.

Have you had some sort of shipping accident on your coastline in the last year or so? Oil on a beach, or something. Something messy, not unsinkable rubber ducks - they're useful!

OP, exactly the same for us - gone up by quite a bit to just under £60 a month, (£58.57 to be precise) for a small 3 bed, not quite a semi but end of a row of 3 houses. Have considered a water meter but don't know if it will be cheaper as there are 6 of us living here, will have to investigate.

I pay £33 a month on a meter and there are 6 of us in the property.

Dillite2 you either have a leak, overflow in loo or your neighbour is sharing your supply (it happens !) 4m3 per week is average for a 6 person household. Note your meter reading (including the red numbers), do not use any taps or flush for a couple of hours and check the meter again.

In my case Thames Water here, high rateable house, the bill was about £500 pa, switched to a meter and it went to about £350pa. Since then I've installed a homemade rainwater harvesting system to flush the loos and bill has dropped to £144pa (£12 per month). That's for both supply and wastewater. Two adults in house (one at home all day), two power showers a day, d/w every other day, washing m/c 4-5 loads a week.

I also claimed a surface water rebate which is worth about £40pa refund, and they backdated it for 3 years. It's worth checking to see if your gutters/downpipes go to a soakaway then you are eligible to claim it.

If you live in one of the high charge areas (South West Water) and have room in the garden for a couple of water tanks then a switch to rainwater harvesting would be well worth considering.

Forgot to mention if you are thinking of going over to a meter there is a calculator to help decide www.ccwater.org.uk/watermetercalculator/

I pay £30 a month which is metered and that is for water/drainage etc the whole lot.

We're a family of 5 and I do at least 1 load of washing per day plus work from home as a dog groomer two days a week so would say we use a lot of water.

We have a septic tank so pay on a meter for what we use. 4 bed but two of us home all day. £12.00 a month. shower, washing machine, dishwasher daily. Water garden from roof collection in tanks.