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AIBU?

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Original poster

Water rates

122 replies

Roundabout78 · 04/02/2023 21:49

How much do you pay? Ours is around £90 per month, sometimes slightly more. Family of 4, one shower each per day. Ours is more expensive than most people we know, and United utilities estimate we use the same as a household of 9 people?! Surely this isn’t right?

OP posts:
GreenBiscuitr · 04/02/2023 23:21

£50 a month, unmetered.

Blossomtoes · 04/02/2023 23:24

JudgeRudy · 04/02/2023 21:56

Do you have a condenser tumble drier on regularly? They use water

They don’t. In fact you can harvest the grey water they collect and reuse it.

inthewash.co.uk/tumble-dryers/condenser-dryer-how-it-works/

Rebel2023 · 04/02/2023 23:29

£20pm meter, United utilities

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 04/02/2023 23:38

£58 but it’s too much and every few months I get a refund from them. Just me and two kids (14 and 9). I think men use a lot of water - they seem to be forever washing themselves.

Emmamoo89 · 04/02/2023 23:39

£24 per month

princessbear80 · 04/02/2023 23:46

£35 a month - two adults, one child

Teapleasebobb · 04/02/2023 23:48

£41 per month, 2 adults, 2 children (1 teen), Severn Trent, no water meter.

Thriwit · 04/02/2023 23:52

£42 a month on a water meter. 2 adults, 2 teens, with United Utilities

OldSkoolLikeHappyShopper · 04/02/2023 23:53

They work it out on the rateable value of your property, or whatever the value was back in the 70s or whenever it was they stopped doing water rates in newly built houses and everyone automatically went on to a meter.

Also depends on what your water provider charges, rates differ.

So if your rates are high, you either live in an expensive area for water, or a valuable house, or both.

Mine is £460 a year BTW, 3 bed terraced house.

JudgeRudy · 04/02/2023 23:57

Pinkflipflop85 · 04/02/2023 23:13

Sat here trying to work out how thefuck a condenser dryer uses water when it isn't attached to a water supply...

Show quote history

It doesn't. My mistake! I was thinking of those old things that were like 'distilleries'...so cold water circulating to cool the steam

CalmBeforeStorm01 · 04/02/2023 23:59

The cost depends where you live in the country. Mine is Wessex Water and they charge more than double what a Thames Water customer would pay. My bill is £33 a month, two of us, about 10 showers and 1 bath a week, 2 loads of washing and we don't have a dishwasher so I'm always filling up the sink for dishes or cleaning.

charabang · 05/02/2023 00:16

£11 per month on water meter. Usually just me with DD coming home out of term time (uni student) Shower daily, 2 washing machine cycles per week.

freeandfierce · 05/02/2023 00:19

£17 a month, that's me having 2 long showers a day, four loads of washing a week plus BF staying weekends having around 4 showers a week. Non metres with Severn Trent.

crazycatladyof6 · 05/02/2023 00:24

JudgeRudy · 04/02/2023 21:56

Do you have a condenser tumble drier on regularly? They use water

No they don’t. They collect water from your clothes. They are not plumbed into the mains!

crazycatladyof6 · 05/02/2023 00:27

Water bills aren’t just for supplying your water, it’s also for taking your dirty water away and treating it which is the more expensive part of it.
water is actually the cheapest utility of all utilities

Changingmynameyetagain · 05/02/2023 00:27

Ours is £48 a month, family of 5 on a meter.

5 showers a day between us, probably a load of washing every day and a dishwasher load every day too, DH also works from home.

It’s slowly crept up over the years, teenaged DD and DS1 spend ages in the shower and I’m forever trying to get them to take shorter showers but to no avail, tbh I’m just happy they have pretty good personal hygiene.

We were paying £42 in 2020 but we’ve had an extension built and now have an extra toilet and shower so it probably accounts for the increased bills.

teenagetantrums · 05/02/2023 00:38

We pay £25 a month. Two of us. So two showers a day. Occasionally a bath and about 4 loads of washing a week.

MaverickGooseGoose · 05/02/2023 00:59

78 per month, according to the stats we are normal usage. Where you are probably influences. Thames here's.

macaronitoni · 05/02/2023 01:02

£35pcm

PitYerTapOan · 05/02/2023 01:13

Like council tax it varies massively across the country. Ours is relatively cheap compared to you at £36 a month (although it is going up this year) but then all of us are paying companies that pump actual shit into our seas and rivers and let water pish out underground because they don't fix pipes so nobody is getting a bargain really.

PitYerTapOan · 05/02/2023 01:13

Well, apart from the shareholders that is.

Nat6999 · 05/02/2023 01:24

£14.75 in with my rent as I'm a council tenant, it really pisses me off because there is only me & if I could have a water meter it probably would only be half if that amount but council refuse permission to have one installed.

Outtasteamandluck · 05/02/2023 05:55

£37 family of 3. Dishwasher on daily. Shower ever day. 4-5 loads of washing per week.

BarbaraofSeville · 05/02/2023 07:43

There's so much variation in charging systems that what others pay doesn't help you OP.

But if your water company is saying your cost is high because your usage is high, that's what needs looking at.

Either you have a leak, or you're using more than you think. Your water company will give water saving advice and should have a cost calculator on its website, perhaps in a 'should i switch from rates to a meter' section so have a look at that as well as advice about investigating leaks.

OhhhhhhhhBiscuits · 05/02/2023 07:47

We pay £82 but we are in the 2nd most expensive area for water in England. You can't really compare like for like as some areas are expensive and some areas are a lot cheaper. It's all a massive con since they were privatised.

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