New water meter - faulty? Help please!

[VivaLosGatos]

We have a water meter (it was there when we bought the house a couple of years ago) and the water company replaced it with a new meter in January.

Since then we've had a water bill in March showing water usage up to January (so on the old meter) which works out as approx 1 cubic metre per day, and water usage since January (so on the new meter) which works out as 2.6 cubic metres per day.

Surely this is wrong?! There have been no changes: no new appliances, no leaks that I know of, no lifestyle changes, nothing. We have a swimming pool (which is why there is a water meter), but it's closed all winter. Nothing has changed apart from the water meter. There are 4 of us living here and nobody is using a lot of water for anything.

Can a water meter be faulty? And if so, what can I do about it?

Would be very grateful for any advice or info!

Regards internal stop taps. Sometimes they aren't actually indoors. Our last house had one immediately outside the front wall of house midway between the external stop tap in the pavement and the kitchen sink at the back of the house. There wasn't one indoors.
Check your appliances that use water. Are there any leaks behind your washing machine or dishwasher? Are any toilet overflows running? Any dripping taps? It'll all clock up on the meter.
Look around outside. Is there any patches if garden that are greener than the rest? Any plants that seem particularly verdant and well watered?
Finally, check whether you share a supply with a neighbour. It's quite common in older properties. Ask them if they have a stop tap of their own. Double check by turning the water off at your external stop tap and see if their water goes off too.
Faulty meters aren't unheard of. Normally the water meter would need to be taken out and sent off to the manufacturer to be calibrated. The water company would charge you for doing this, but if there is a fault they would refund you (if not faulty you'd have to bear the cost).

Thank you - we are on the hunt!

We have tried asking the previous owner, but no luck. He made a LOT of changes often bodged to the house, and I suspect he messed around with the stopcock siting at some point. But whatever he did, he can't remember what it was now...

There are no unusually green patches outside, and no damp smells or other leak signs in the house. There is a boxed-in water softener (not working) right over the things in the kitchen which look like they ought to be stopcocks. We are asking the plumber to remove the water softener and hoping we may find a proper stopcock behind it, or at least more clues.

I don't think we can be sharing a supply with a neighbour, because our supply is metered.

don't think we can be sharing a supply with a neighbour, because our supply is metered

It does happen. The water inspectors are supposed to "prove" the supply prior to fitting a meter, but mistakes do happen. I worked in the water industry for over 10 years and I've been in many a conversation with a customer about this. (Although more common when a house has been converted to flats without the developer adding new supplies to the new kitchens in the building)

I've just had another thought. Obviously water will find the lowest point. Have a look in your drains and soakaways to see if there is excess water?

Water meter possible faulty - I have had very high water bills for a few years and accepted it - but now questioning why . After doing a two hour meter test after turning off everything, I found the meter had moved a tenth of a cubic meter. Doesn't sound like much . The Water Authority said if the small silver dial is not spinning then I'm being billed correctly, and weren't interested that the meter was moving. But there is clearly a fault as the meter is still moving and i get billed for the meter reading not the small dial spinning. So i persevered and they will now check the meter.