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's the equivalent of 196 showers in a week?! That's crazy. I'd be refusing to pay....
Did you have a homebuyers report done? Would that state where the water stopcock is?

Insist they check the meter itself.

Years ago, we had a new elec meter fitted in our all-electric house; and the metered usage rate went astronomical. The power co insisted we must be using more power. After many battles they finally admitted that they had received a batch of faulty new meters (all producing the identical false reading), when they checked the registration number on ours, it was one of the faulty batch. They had to replace it .

It's definitely wrong. We're a family of 5, Southern, £29 pm.

I’m in an old terrace and the water company say I can’t be metered as apparently terraces are an absolute nightmare and sometimes you could be paying for 3 households water! Something to do with how they metered them back in the day and when people had outside toilets/outhouses.

I would keep reading it and take time dated photos and write down your water use...

Keep a diary.

Hi Op
While you have the cover up check the meter number matches that on your bill and also look for your out door stop cock in there, that's where mine is but it needs a big key to turn off.
I live alone with my dog. 2 bed, 1 bathroom. Work from home a lot so use my own water for flushing and kettle. Probably run the washing machine twice a week, no dishwasher but I spend a good half hour in the shower every day so I'd say I may have similar consumption to you but my consumption is usually around 50m3 for 6 months.(I check the meter readings because I'm tight and nosey).
Sounds like you have a leak after your meter somewhere.

You've got a leak. Quite straightforward. Not unusual.

Tale a photo of your meter please, showing the glass window. Is there a bubble in it? Is it turning?

How old is your house?

DH and I had an electric bill for £20k once in a tiny flat when we were students. We complained saying that it couldn’t be correct (and we hadn’t let anyone in to read the meter so it didn’t make sense that they had a reading from the date they said they did) and they insisted that we just had to pay it.

We obviously didn’t have that kind of money so couldn’t pay and they threatened legal action but eventually it turned out that there were two meters for the flat: one in the flat and one in the shared stairwell.... they were malfunctioning and didn’t have anywhere near the same number on them.

I found this vid on checking a meter, which is quite good.

If you do find water is going through, turn off the indoor stopcock and see if it stops or continues.

Still having issues with this. Can't find a stopcock anywhere inside the house, meter doesn't seem to be turning when there is no water being used in the house. South east water said in order for one of their technicians to investigate from outside my property I need to turn the water off at the stopcock inside which I can't do as I can't find it and their technician can't come into my property, to locate the stopcock and turn it off during current lockdown regulations. So I am at an impasse currently. According to the water meter readings I have been taking we have used 18 cubic metres of water in the last 4 weeks! So that mean 234 cubic metres a year! Surely that's cannot be correct?!

My daughter isn't even here two days a week as she is now visiting her dad again. I've done a maximum of 4 loads of washing per week, dishwasher on about 5 times a week. Bath/ shower once a day each but usually share the water if it's a bath. No garden to water etc. Did wash down the patio but that was a bucket and a half of water extra that's all.

I second the suggestion to check the serial number on the bill matches the serial number on your meter.

I've had two bills far higher than they should have been and it turned out the number on the bill was wrong so they've been billing me for someone else's water.

It's an on going issue. I refused to pay the second bill and I'm waiting for a refund on the first one.

Is your kitchen in a newer extension of an older property? Ours is and our stopcock is located one the opposite wall from our sink, when the original outer wall would have been. We only know where it is because the kitchen renovators pointed it out and made a hole in our cupboards so we could access it. Well there was a hole in the old ones but in the fitters words you'd have needed to be some type of contortionist to turn it.

I was told the stopcock is usually in a straight line from the meter if your meter is in a manhole in the street. Ours is behind our dishwasher, presumably where the sink was before previous owners renovated.

And unhelpfully it's behind our oven in our old flat, again where the sink used to be.

Meter number matches the bill. Kitchen is in the old house, so not in an extension. If it's a straight line from the meter to the stopcock then that means it's probably behind the kitchen cupboards or built in dishwasher as I suspect but have no way of getting to it as it's all built in without ripping half the kitchen out which I certainly can't afford to do

I am single and moved to a metered bungalow last year
My previous property was metered too and I paid about £20 a month
Water board billed me at £47 a month
My usage has not changed
After several complaints were made unsuccessfully they eventually sent out an engineer.
My bill was reduced to £19 a month and I received a refund for overpayment aftrr 5 months
Just keep going until they sort it out

If you know any of your neighbours ask them where the stop tap is on their property if their house is similar to yours. Houses were built to a pattern with pipework in the same place. So if they know where theirs is yours is likely to be in the same place

We had a similar issue and were told that the bill was correct. We started checking the meter reading on a daily basis and provided the supplier with the readings at which point they investigated further and discovered that we were being charged for three of our neighbours!
Recommend taking readings!

Who boxes in their stop cock? I'd be pissed off if it's been built in somewhere by the previous owners. What did they plan to do if they had an internal leak?
We had problems in one house locating our stop cock and ever since I insist on seeing it or being told where it is upon moving in. But to be fair we move house every few years and we've learnt the hard way through bitter experience. Most of 9ur stop cocks have been located in the kitchen, a down stairs loo/bathroom or under the stairs.

I would suggest asking any nearby houses with the same layout where there's is. If its in the kitchen don't rip the kitchen out but just try cutting panels out the back of the most likely units. The backpanels are usually thin board. You can always get some catches made to put the panels back in or replace the back panels cheaply. We had to do this in one house.
Your dishwasher is built in but must come out somehow as they don't last for ever. If your dishwasher died tomorrow you would probably get it removed and replaced, likewise if you had a big leak. Perhaps ask a plumber or kitchen fitter to come and help remove dishwasher search for the stop cock (starting in most likely places) because they'll be able to do it ensuring your kitchen is put back together best as possible, such as with the back panels replaced and repaired accordingly, obviously leaving the stop cock accessible for future use.
It may cost a days wages for a workman but the long term benefits and potential refund could help cover that.
Hope you get sorted.

OP check the back of all your kitchen cupboards. Our stopcock is behind ours but there is a hole at the back/bottom of one so we can access it. It's the cupboard next to the sink here.

Can you move the kitchen kick boards and look underneath the cupboards?

We have a 5 bed house, with 8 people living here, baths and showers constantly and we have a dishwasher and washing machine thats always going and our bill for the year was 760.
Your bill cant be right

When I lived alone the water company read the meter and sent me a bill for £800 for the year. I phoned to query it and they insisted it was correct, asking about my swimming pool (2nd floor council flat) water sprinklers in my grounds (window box) etc. Eventually I got exasperated and said my gerbil must have been running multiple baths whilst I was out. In the end I wrote to the head office putting the logical case forward: that I couldn't possibly have used what they were demanding and it was cancelled due to a meter reading error on their part. Very stressful!

Hi there, did you get this resolved? I ask because it sounds like we are in the same area, I am with Southern water and grappling with them at the moment over my bill, my partner and I live in a one bedroom flat and just got charged £144 for two months worth of water which is insane! I submit our meter readings online but clearly something is not right... They asked me do a tap test and call a plumber to check for leaks which we did and nothing was found, I've gone back to them now via their online chat and they insist on sending a bloody script asking if I've filled up a swimming pool etc recently?? They won't send an engineer out as it's an internal meter we have, but it is obviously faulty!

As your post is fairly recent I wondered if you had any joy with the water company?

I live in a Victorian terrace and my stopcock is under the floorboards inside the front door - board over it is loose to lift up