Insane Water Bill - Help!

[Bcherry686]

I have lived in my current rented property for the last 18 months. Historically, my water bill has always been £22 p/m. I lived on my own in a small studio apartment and am barely in the flat during the week due to working a lot.

I recently found that my monthly bill had increased to £56 p/m! I rang united utilities and they stated that on average it appears as thought im using as much water as a 5 person house. They advised that i take another reading.

I took another reading last week and this came back as 12x the amount of water usage than my previous months! Equivalent to 17 baths per day.

I spoke to them yesterday and they advised to complete a consumption test (taking readings 4 hours apart to see if the metre goes up). I have completed 2 of these and the metre hasn’t changed.

I have informed united utilities of this and they have asked me to check my toilet isn’t leaking and contact them back?

I have contacted them 4x since this and everyone tells me to get another metre reading. I feel like they are palming me off without giving me a solid plan on how i can fix this?

I’m very worried i will have to pay this bill, even though i know it cannot be right. Please can anyone advise me on what i should do.

Any comments appreciated

It is very often a toilet running, even with a very slow leak through the seals. Or possibly a leak between the meter and your flat. Can you get a plumber in to check?

Yes I’ve contacted my landlord to see if they can get a plumber out to investigate what’s going on.

Where is your water meter?

In the riser in my apartment building. Only caretaker has access to it to give readings

If you turn off your internal stop tap then go to the meter. If there's movement on the meter it proves its between a leak somewhere between the two. If there's no movement on the meter then it suggests that there's an internal leak.
Every appliance that uses water will click up usage on the meter If its leaky. Check inlet pipes on your washing machine and dishwasher; cistern overflows and leaky taps.
Another thing to consider is whether the meter is correctly fitted and you're not paying for other flats in your block or a garden tap.
Have the readings been taken correctly?

How long has the meter been there? Meters have a "life" of about 15 years before they become inaccurate.

We had something similar.... Turned out to be that we were being metered after next doors meter. We paid for us and them. And they paid for theors as well. When next door was vacant we paid £17 pm. After it was occupied it went up to £46pm. It took over 2 years to sort it out. Our refund was handsome.

Please check the bill very carefully. I never took any notice of the usage details outlined in the bill until they doubled my direct debit. I rang customer services twice and had to do the checking the meter readings at intervals and was told to check the toilets for leaks etc I was terribly worried and then I sat down and read the bill properly and noticed that they'd actually repeated the usage section of the bill twice adding up to double the amount it should be. Instead of ringing customer services I rang the complaints department who admitted a computer error had caused this mistake for a lot of customers and rebilled me the correct amount. I now read all bills very carefully.