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?

There's no way that's right OP. We pay about £30 a month in a four bed house (adult kids come and go) I would definitely get them to look into this further and check next doors connection.

I would recommend that you contact Ofwat.

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

We had that too, and additionally, there was only one stopcock for every two houses, so we were paying for two households - neither of which was ours. Complete mess. This should have been obvious when they installed the meters (it was the same situation for everyone on our street), but this was done by outside contractors who obviously didn't really care. We were also in the South East, come to think of it.

I’d email the ceo if the water board, ime nothing happens till you do.

We had this with a gas bill.
It was going up and up but we weren't using more.
Phone calls to complany did not help.
In desperation rang the ombudsman (I think ) there be one fir water.

We had a new meter and they were reading it wrong.
Got almost a grand refunded.
Stick with it.

We had a massive bill, turned out we had a leak between the meter and the house, Turn off your supply at the stopcock then look at the meter to see if it is still turning, if it is you have an underground leak.

If you can't check the meter, how are they checking the meter? It must come off?

Are they actually reading your meter, or are they estimating it? We've just had this problem. DH went and read it himself.

We had this problem a couple of years ago with ses water. I queried it and they said it was correct. I trawled back over my bills and noticed that the about the new bill and the old bills had different meter numbers. Turned out they'd put next doors meter number under my address so I was paying for the 2 flats next door. They were really good about it though and refunded everything I'd overpaid and then gave me some credit on top of it.

For reference we live in a 2 bed, 2 adults 2 children and our bill is roughly £250 for the year.

I’d you know where your water meter is go and have a look at it. We had a leak so bad I could hear it spinning before I lifted the manhole cover !

The water company will send someone to check for a leak externally anyway for free just ask them. No way is that correct

They will give you a leakage allowance and cover most of the bill as well

Wow! We pay £30/month

My mum had high bills for several years. Eventually the kitchen floor rotted from underneath and we found the leak.

When I moved house I was asked if I wanted to go on a meter. They estimated £130 a year for three people in a three bed. Your bill is insane.

I was working in a shoe shop and next door was a hairdressers. Head office queried our very large water bill and it turned out we were paying the hairdressers bill and they were paying ours. Quite a difference with hair washing etc!!!

Before you go to bed, turn off the internal stopcock and take a meter reading. Then when you get up take another reading before you turn the stopcock back on.

If the meter has gone up, this will tell you if you have an underground leak.

As pp have suggested, check the serial number on your meter and check the number on your bills.

And regularly turn the supply off at the meter to see if any neighbours have "accidentally" been tapped into your supply.

What sort of usage does the bill say you're going through? How many litres?

Finally managed to get the cover off and look at the water meter, didn't seem to be turning when nothing was on but in the last 10 days since they read they read the meter it's used 7 cubic metres of water (my bill tells me 1 cubic meter is equivalent to 10 baths or 20 showers!)

It's not a new build, it's a Victorian terrace. I'm not really on speaking terms with next door, they are a young couple who rent it and he is an abusive drug dealing twat so I don't really want to go ask!

I know someone who had some work done on their house which required turning off the water, and it was at that point that they discovered that the neighbour's extension ran off their water supply. When the work had been done, it was the easiest way to do it, and as water wasn't metered in those days there didn't seem any reason not to. The water company did refund them some of the extra they'd been paying.

When this happened to me it was the toilet cystern . It was constantly refillin because the floating thing which tells it that it is full wasn’t working .

I'm using 100 cubic meters roughly every 6 months according to the two most recent bills.

Just dug out my water bill... Ok I'm a single man who's very conservative with water, but in a 6 month period I used 28m cubed.

7m cubed in 10 days is horrendous. There has to be something up.

The other problem is I've searched high and low for the stop cock and can't find it anywhere. I suspect the previous owners have helpfully boxed it in when they renovated before selling it!

Check your water supply is to only your house (this applies to my DS1 house, where his supply is to a group of houses.).
Check for leaks, and dont forget to check the toilet pan.
This applied to my other DS2. We could hear in the house the sound of water being turned on and off. It transpired that the toilet flush was leaking water into the toilet bowl, and what we heard was the toilet cistern refilling periodically. You check this by placing a dry piece of toilet tissue in the side of the toilet bowl, and if it is leaking, the paper will get damp. This will determine whether the toilet needs a new flush mechanism.
This method was used recently by the water company who approx a year ago offered to come and check our water efficiency!

It might have already been said, but take a meter reading just before you go to bed and then again when you get up. If you haven't got a leak it'll be the same. Obviously don't flush the toilet, wash hands between readings.

How old is your house? Older houses the stopcock is usually under the kitchen sink. It may be where the water first enters the house. What's the thing that uses water that's nearest to the meter? Kitchen sink? Downstairs toilet?