Water bill over £2000

[FloatingLeaf]

Looking for urgent advice.
My water bill has been around £30 a month for year, on a meter. It went up last year and I didn’t get around to querying it. I thought of it as saving! I live in a part of country where water is expensive. I live alone in a 2 bed house . Shower daily , wash dishes by hand and put on washing machine twice a week .
My bill for last 6 months is £2200 .

It’s either a mistake or a leak. Is there any point in taking out specific insurance now and waiting a month to challenge it bill with water company? Will home insurance cover repairs if there is a major leak.

Call the water company now, right now

Oh wow. In the first instance, I think you need to speak with your supplier to find out whether there has been a mistake in the calculation.

If it has been caused by a leak I don’t think taking out insurance after the fact is going to help in any way.

We had this once when they had accidentally read a neighbour's meter instead of ours.

For some reason, our neighbour's meter is on our drive.

Thanks for replying. As soon as I spoke to water company the advisor said you have a big leak. He said to call my insurance company. I’m currently on hold with them.
Don’t suppose anyone knows if this is routinely covered by policies.

It could be that the meter reader has input the numbers wrongly. We had this, they sent someone round to look for a leak and it was simply 2 numbers that had been reversed on their reading.

You can check this yourself right now, go and look at the meter and compare the number to the number on the bill

Water damage is normally covered but not necessarily the cost of locating the leak or the water itself.
Have you turned off your stop cock in the meantime?

Hi, cover varies from policy to policy. It is less likely to be covered if the leak is outside your house it is less likely to be covered. Companies such as Homeserve provide specific cover for this kind of leak, but you obviously cannot purchase this if you already have one. If you have a water meter, turn the stopcock off in your house and then check if the meter is still turning. If it is, then the issue is between you and the meter, i.e. somewhere on your land.

Turn all the water off in the house, but not at the stop cock and see if the meter reading goes up. If it does you probably have a leak somewhere in the house.

Household insurance only usually covers water leaks that is causing damage to the property. You need to find out where the leak is coming from. If it is within the boundary of your property it is your responsibility, if it's outside your boundary it is the water company's responsibility.

If it is a leak and you speak to them they will adjust the bill. We had a high bill once when the shower was overflowing for several hours and it resulted in an abnormally high bill. I spoke to the customer services and explained that we'd had a leak and they reduced the bill.

Turn your internal stop tap off and check to see if the meter is still running
If you can’t see the meter put a broom handle on the tap and listen to it
If it’s that big a leak you will hear it

It's not standard for it to be covered if the leak is on your property but outside the house, ie underground, unless it was caused by damage, such as a heavy vehicle. It probably won't be covered if the pipe is damaged/cracked from wear and tear/age.

Water companies usually allow a discretionary one off leak allowance though.

Check your toilets, these dratted tanks that overflow silently down the pan are often the culprit. Flush, then put cochineal in the tank and see if that's your problem. Mone ran up a bill of c £650 in a year, which I was covered for.

They read the meter wrong on ours once and sent us a £450 bill. Check your meter!

They're suggesting (if I have my calculations right based on ~£3/ cubic liter) that you've used (or lost via a leak) 3300 litres of water per day for 6 months.

If the leaked water has returned to the sewer then you should be entitled to some sort of rebate, check with your utility regulator if you don't get anywhere with your water company

Sounds like an error or an underground leak.

Some water companies also offer a contribution towards the costs of fixing a leak within your property boundary too.

We had this once. It was a leak in the pipe in the garden. We had no idea. The water company were amazing. After it was fixed we had to take monthly readings for 6 months so they could work out our average usage. They wrote the rest away. Don't panic! Easier said than done but I remember getting a similar bill and almost throwing up.

Generally your buildings policy will a section that covers accidental damage to underground services like mains water pipes, this section does not cover damage to the pipe because of age.

Some water providers have a discretionary allowance that they can offset against your bill in the event of a leak, you can then claim the cost of any lost metered water from your contents insurance.

It’s definitely a leak. I have called insurance company and they will look at the wording of my policy. They will call me back!
I just have to hope it’s not on my side of the property. I would never have guessed this want covered by my insurance.
The water board d said that once leak is fixed they would refund me once they’d established my normal water usage.

I would have thought that your insurance would cover a leak inside your boundary and a leak outside the boundary is the water company's problem?

Apparently a leak is only covered inside if it is a accidentally damaged pipe, not wear and tear!