Water meters - is it possible to go from metered to unmetered?

[ihategeorgeosborne]

We are buying a house with a water meter. However, the house we currently live in is not metered. We currently pay £55 a month in water bills. We are a family of 5. I suspect that having a water meter would cost us a lot more than we currently pay and I'm wondering if it is at all possible to elect to not use the meter in the new house. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? Any advice gratefully received, thanks. We are with Wessex water BTW if that helps.

from the Wessex site, you can't go back if the meter is there when you move in. The current owners have the option to change back if they've had it less than a year.

£2 a cubic metre, I see, plus sewerage charge. No option I'm afraid so look hard at your usage.

General rule of thumb is if you have less people than bedrooms, your better on a meter. Any chance that applies?
Think the only way you can get them taken out is if you ask for one to be put in, and then its more expensive.
I suspect they would leave the meter there for the next purchasers tho - just not charge from the meter once its in, iyswim.

I dont' think it's ever possible, sorry.
We are a family of 6 & pay only 26/month (but maybe we are mingers).
See if you can have a soakaway on property, that brings bill down if no surface runoff into drains.

Just looked at our prices - £1.16/m^3, similar for sewage, and a fixed charge, which looks to be half your rate.
Doubling our current usage for 4 would get to about £44, so you may not find it going up massively - tho the kids share a bath, DH showers twice a day.

We went from two people in a two bed flat paying £400 per annum on water rates, to a 4 bed house with dishwasher paying £300 pa. 8 years and two children later, plus me at home all day (I'm a childminder) and we still pay pretty much the same. We're in NW London.

Our usage went down when water metre installed. The water companies are making them compulsory over the next 10 years so you will end up with one anyway. We now pay £20 a month and we did pay £35. We are in Surrey.

I would be surprised if unmetered was cheaper.
I suggest seeing how it goes. We noticed a huge difference when we had a meter put in. Vastly cheaper.
A close family member had a bed and breakfast( 8 rooms ) and had a meter put on. They found a meter was a lot cheaper than the previous water rates.
Also worth considering water saving measures such as shower savers, toilet cistern bricks etc. water authority can advise. Most household appliances are energy/ water saving these days. I would really look into it.

We had the option of returning to non metered for up to 1 year after, not sure if you are moving into a metered property.

Doubt it. Our house had unmetered when we purchased it, and because it was a sale, they required it to change to metered.

Thanks all for your replies. We have 4 bedrooms and 5 people sugar so I guess we won't be better off on a meter. We shower every day and the dc bath although they do share bath water! Our main problem is washing machine. Sometimes on twice a day though not always. That's good to hear holiday, maybe it won't be too bad after all. I've just heard stories of friends who are metered and they say bills are £70+ a month . Reading all your replies, it sounds like we might be ok. Will have to see how it goes and I guess we'll be stuck with the meter in any case, so will need to be very careful with our usage. Thanks.

There are lots of water saving devises you can search online

Shower heads can be adapted to save water, keep showers short

Don't run the tap when teeth brushing

Yellow mellow saves around 7litres per none flush

Don't overfill kettle

Don't wash up everything in the dishwasher saves water

Washing machines often have quick washes that use less water search your washing machine manual out and see not everything needs a long wash

We are 5 in a 4 bed house since last August. This house is metered (last house wasn't). I was dreading the bill. It was fine. We are heavy washing machine users. My daughter takes forever in the shower.

It's not as bad as you'd think.

I asked to have it removed but they can't.

We 5 in a 4 bedroom, and our water meter £25 per month.

We are metered with Wessex, family of four, only two showers a day (we shower at work), 10 loads of washing a week, taps off when brushing teeth etc. Wessex have said we use less than the average amount of water but we pay £70 per month