To think they’re having a laugh charging this

[FlyingSoap]

We have recently bought a 3 bed semi with no water meter. Fixed yearly price of £582.47.
They have (somehow) worked out that although we missed the first 3 months of the year, we will be paying £62 a month for water. I think this is stupidly high for a 3 bedroom house, 2 adults and a baby. They aren’t budging on the price & saying we’ll have to just request they instal a water meter.

AIBU thinking it’s high?

Oops. Didn't intend to quote the OP!

Can I have your water rate, we are paying over £1200 a year for a 3 bed.

Ours is almost twice that. Family of 4, one teen but not one that spends her life in bathroom yet

i have a large 3 bedroom
only pay £22

been paying roughly that for years

some of these prices are mad

That's cheap. You'll be paying more on a metre. I live in a 3 bedroom house, unfortunately have a water metre n it's so high! Just glad we get the discount due to children under 18

£21 cat and I south east

Sound about right. Before my exh moved out we paid £58pm. This was 2 adults and a pre schooler, in a 3 bed house.

To give you an idea, I've now changed to a water meter, because it's just me and dd (50% of the time) and I pay £31 per month. I'm very frugal with water. Use water butts for the garden and left over washing up water, no dishwasher, time my showers, water saving devices etc.

Mine's similar. I don't recommend a meter because once my friend switched, it increased a lot. Instead of using water ehen ever she wanted to, she became frugal with it.

It doesn't make sense - if a full year is £582, that should be £48.50 a month (582/12). Even if they bill over 10 months the amount for 3/4 of the year should be £436.

I live alone,2 bedroom flat and pay £51 a month (not on a water meter).

Sorry, I forgot to say we’re a family of four (me, DP, DD who is 27 and DD who is 17). Five bed house with dishwasher, two shower rooms, washing on about every day. I don’t want to go monthly, I prefer the six monthly bill and it sounds like it works out cheaper looking at what everyone else on here is paying.

It’s pretty clear why the water supply and waste treatment are problematic. Some of these bills seem very low for an essential service. If we want clean rivers and a better water infrasrructure, we need to pay more. Some of these bills are dwarfed by what you would pay for coffee on the high street!

@FlyingSoap
Could you clarify what you mean by missing the first three months of the year/
You only moved in after the first 3 months? Or missed paying ?

Ours is metered so we're paying exactly the same per cubic metre as anyone else on a meter in our area

As a rule of thumb, if you have less adults than bedrooms, you would probably benefit from a meter.

They have (somehow) worked out that although we missed the first 3 months of the year, we will be paying £62 a month for water

For how many months?

Everywhere I've lived, water & sewage charge has been paid for 8 months/year, so the monthly payment is the total for the year (or proportion of the year you live there) divided by 8. If you've moved in part-way through a year they might have spread it across fewer months so you're paying in the same months as everyone else.

So, say your annual charge is £582 but you're only there for 9 months of that year, your annual charge becomes £436.50. if you missed the first usual payment month, that might be averaged across 7 months, i.e. £62/month.

You can ask for a fair usage rate as it’s just 2 adults. Friends of mine have recently done this as the water company couldn’t install a meter. Their annual bill was reduced by £200 also a 3 bed semi. So now around £400 pa.

I pay £29 a month in London - 2 bedrooms

Don't you pay water rates over 10 months not 12? So therefore their quote is about right.

Get a water meter

We are Yorkshire Water too, have a meter, two adults. We both have daily showers, I have a bath about once a week, DH sometimes has two showers in a day. On average we do 4 loads of washing a week, I often use a 20° wash which is 44 minutes. We don’t have a dishwasher, wash up as we go. Both at home all day, most days so loo flushing regularly. We pay £17 a month.

Definitely get a meter. We pay £20 a month for two adults in a 2 bedroom house (Thames Water). At first they said we couldn’t have a meter but we pushed and they managed to install one.

Just get a meter, it will be cheaper for you. And no water company will negotiate on charges.

We pay £59 a month non-metered. 2 bed semi, ex LA, Council tax band B house, NW England.

The trouble is, the increased payments would go to shareholders, not into improving standards/cleanliness/the environment.