Surely this water bill can't be correct?

[simonneilsbeautifulhair]

I moved into a two bedroom house with my youngest daughter a year and a half ago, only us in the house except when my eldest dd (21) comes to visit occasionally. Our first water bill was about £250 for six months which was relatively high for two people I guess but we have a dishwasher so not unusually so. However the last two bills have been double that so £1000 for the year, which seems absolutely insane. It's more than I was paying for water when we lived in a four bedroom 3 bathroom house with my eldest daughter (who was a teenager at the time so spend half her life in the bath or shower!) and my ex husband.

I've queried it numerous times with the water company and they have supposedly checked the water meter and said it's correct, as it wasn't moving when nothing was on in the house. After the last huge bill they said the consumption had gone down and was now in line with what it should be but then I get another bill just as big at the last. Nothing has changed, no extra appliances, building work been done and it's just a tiny two bedroom terrace with 1 bathroom and no garden to speak of so not using extra to water plants or anything. No dripping taps or obvious leaks. We even share bath water most mornings. Dishwasher goes on once a day at the moment as we are both home all the time but up until lockdown it was once every three days roughly. About 4/5 loads of washing a week max.

It just seems absolutely massive. When I search average water bill it seems to be over double the typical 5 bedroom house cost! What is your water bill and for how many people? We are in the south east if that makes any difference. And does anyone have any advice on what could be causing it?

That doesn’t sound right, have you checked that none of your showers and taps are leaking? Checked all pipes?

In a 2 bedroom house, 2 people, with a patio that I used to regularly water flowers on, hand washing up (which uses WAY more water than a dishwasher), I was paying about £20 a month.
I didn’t even pay much more when I discovered a leak in the kitchen and it flooded!

Is your toilet leaking into the bowl? I had a similar shock and it was the toilet, I didn’t realise how much was being wasted.

DH and I, two teens and am almost teen in a 4 bed house use less than that. Our bill is about £700. We use loads of water too as kids take really long showers.

Weird. I'm in a two bed with a bath loving partner (I'm a daily shower person), no dishwasher, but the bill that arrived last week was £150 for 6 months. Slightly up on the last one, but only by about £20. Yours seems mad.

The Water Company website should have a calculator which will give you an idea of average consumption and cost.
I’m supplied by Thames Water, which is one of the cheaper providers, and our annual bill is approx £350 - two adults, occasional visitors and a dishwasher.

Your bills do seem high and it may be worth getting onto your provider again.

No leaks that I can find, bathroom and kitchen were newly fitted just before we moved in so everything is in good condition. Have checked toilet, taps etc. The only possible thing I can think, and I'm really grasping at straws here is that next door was renovated at a time that coincides with the increase, could they have connected to our water supply?!

I'm in a four bed, two bathrooms, five of us using water.
Ours is £50 per month so £600 per year.

Our dishwasher goes on three times a day, I do probably ten loads of laundry a week and in the summer we fill a huge paddling pool every few days.

There is definitely something wrong with your water bill

You need to look at the average price for your water company. Prices vary massively over the country. Iirc, Wessex, Southwestern and Southern are the most expensive.

Not likely to be possible as the moment, but when lockdown finishes, can you read tye meter, and everyone go out for the day. Read the meter when you get home again. Ideally on a day when your neighbours are at home, just incase the meter is feeding more than one house?

Are they reading the correct meter? We had an issue a few years ago when the meter reader was actually reading a neighbours meter.

It was easy to resolve by sending a photo of the reading on our meter.

Our neighbours were getting our other neighbours bill as they mixed up the meters when they did some work so it is possible, you need to request an engineers visit so they can do a test on both properties

I was wondering if you were paying for next door’s water too. Could you ask your provider if they provide water to that house too (is that a given?) and if they are also paying a bill? How well do you know your neighbour, could you ask them?

That doesn’t sound anywhere near right. We are dairy farmers and run approx 50% off the mains and our water bill is only 6k/yr for 1300 animals fed and watered plus milking parlour washing/cooling and two houses on the farm. So if all on mains would be 12k/he. According to your bill you’re using about a 12th of what we are so running this whole place for a month. That’s a ridiculous volume of water for one household even if you ran the washer and dishwasher four times a day and took up bog snorkelling in your bathroom. Do you have an outside tap? That would be my first port of call for a leak. Or make some enquires with neighbours about their bills to see what is roughly average in the street.

Mine is about £40 a month. 2 bedroom house. We have a lot of baths!

I would say you are paying for your neighbours. That is insane.

4 bed here with a husband who waters his grass throughout the summer, water the plants every day, regular baths and showers and ours is £40 a month.

Have you tried looking at the water meter again?
That amount doesn’t sound right to me! We are a 3 person household and we don’t spend anywhere near that! Dishwasher and washing machine is obviously on more at the moment and no shared showers or baths and ours is under £35 a month.

Dishwashers use less water than washing up by hand, so it's not that.

Have you run through the calculations with actual meter readings. Is this part correct? Do you know that they're using the right meter? Look at the calculator on your water company website, it's quite detailed and asks things like how many showers a week you have, whether you water the garden, that sort of thing.

Sounds like the next door refurbishment could be the answer, maybe they've accidentally (or even deliberately, but people don't do that, do they?) connected to the pipes measured by your meter?

We can't have a meter because the outside pipes are shared with next door and there's nowhere inside the house that's suitable. We pay about £350 per year rates for two people and I understand it should be slightly less than that if we were metered. Unless you're in the south West, £1000 per year is outrageous.

It sounds insanely high. I know that it can depend on where you are - water rates in the SE are quite high I think. But we pay £16 per month and have two bathrooms (including a huge bath which is used at least twice a week), dishwasher, very large garden with lots of watering!

That’s a horrendous amount, we have 4 of us in a 4 bed. Daily showers for everyone, washing machine and dishwasher everyday and our monthly payment is £52.

Is it possible (after lockdown) for you to go away for a weekend and check if any water is used?

What volume of water are you actually using (Bill should list volume of water used and waste water)?

I agree with KittenVsbox, water charges differ greatly depending upon where you live.
I discovered a leak from a bathroom outlet pipe outside, increased my bill enormously. I spoke to the water company and they reduced my bill to the normal usage amount once I explained the problem. They will only do this once apparently.
Get someone in to try and trace the issue.

I had similar once, our bill was nearly a grand! Out of nowhere, none of the other bills had been anywhere near that. I called the company in a bit of a panic and they agreed it was a steep increase so sent an engineer to look. Turns out we had two meters, one inside and one out. Normally we’d let the engineer in to check the indoor one but on this occasion we hadn’t been in so they checked the outdoor. The outdoor one was broken and that’s why it was such a huge reading. But as your company have checked it I have no idea, it seems very strange?

I would query it again, especially if usage has dropped and nothing has changed. Unfortunately if nextdoor did connect it will be hard to prove if that connection has now been removed. If usage is now correct that would indicate the meter is reading OK now. Has it been changed?

Sounds like your paying yours and your neighbours bill.

We had a similar issue caused by a small underground leak after the meter. Do you have insurance that covers mains water pipe leaks?

You need to take multiple meter readings (possibly even several a day) and make a diary of water usage to work out what is going on (you can get approx figures for how much water a dishwasher, a toilet flush uses etc).

5 teens/adults and a cat that will only drink from a running tap

£700 per year and we aren't in a cheap water area.

A friend had a leak under her kitchen floor for years! It was doubling her bill.

I would check the water meter yourself. Take a reading don't use it for several hours and then read again.

I’m on a water meter and my bills are between £250/300 per 6 months - I am in a 2 bed flat with 2 adults and 1 child