We’re moving to a house with a water meter

[Bobsyer]

We’re a family of five that currently pay £35 a month (United Utilities). In the searches it says the house we’re moving to is metered. I guess that makes sense as for years it’s been one person living there on her own - but we’re a family of five, two of whom are almost teens.

Can anyone offer any insight into how much it costs them on a meter?

Looks like despite starting the process in April we’ll have to pay stamp duty as the vendors solicitors have been so shit, and when I read this yesterday it immediately worried me. The house is much bigger so was expecting electricity and gas to be more expensive but hadn’t counted on water.

Everything about this move is stressing me out I’m getting so little sleep.

So - anyway. We obviously have a washing machine, we have a small dishwasher used at least once sometimes twice daily, daily showers for five - oh yes and there’s a garden too.

Am I going to be bankrupting myself to pay for water?!

Now I feel stupid because I kind of thought it was like metered gas - you top it up!

So there is the potential for us to get into huge water debt? Splendid.

Thanks for that link @StroppyTop I do have three kids here under 19 claiming child benefit, so it looks like the bill would be capped at £425.06? Paid monthly that's actually less than I'm paying now (overall it isn't but I pay over ten months). I'll call them tomorrow because I don't get the other benefits but the addition of child benefit in the paragraph doesn't make it hugely clear.

That is not well advertised, I wonder how many people are paying over the odds?

@Bobsyer Yes, it’s not well advertised. I have to renew mine annually but it is such a relief to know it’s capped when someone leaves a tap on, has 1 hour showers, etc.

UU is one of the most expensive suppliers

Bloody expensive. I'm always shocked when I read about 4 bed houses with 5 adults costing £30 on metered water.

Well, 20 years ago we were paying £50 per month for 10 months based on our rates. We moved to a house with a meter and our bills dropped to £30 per month, and now we are paying £60 per month. This is based on lockdown months when we were 4 adults at home all day, the cyclists amongst us were showering twice per day, lots of washing , and dishwasher at least once a day. Before DS2 came home for lockdown we were paying about £45/month.
You'll be fine.

@NoWordForFluffy previously ( early 90s ) I had a property with a commercial metered supply along side the domestic unmetered supply, the water board man came out to investigate why I was only paying the standing charge on the metered supply as he thought I had bypassed the system and was "stealing" water , it just so happened I wasn't but I had turned it off at the meter as the business wasn't operating so had no need for water, as it was being sold and I was moving , he was quite unpleasant and sneeringly told me that any property that was sold would get a water meter ..... just something I remembered from quite a while ago

Well, it clearly doesn't happen as standard across the country as I've bought and sold houses since then with no triggering of installation (as per the link above).

I’ve just done the calculator and alarmingly it is saying £123 a month for us up from £43 a month currently.

@Idyllic

re the not flushing the toilets.

I have three sons, and like most parents I always said don't flush at night time as you might wake someone. Now they're older, the habit of not-flushing has increased to during the day and leaving the seat up - I always make them stop what they're doing and drag them all to the bathroom for one of them to flush if that happens!

I absolutely dread not flushing as one of mine has extremely strong smelling urine (nothing wrong, has been checked - just smelly!) and I HATE the way the toilet then gets stained and someone (guess who ) has to scrub it.

But - I guess I'll have to make a sacrifice somewhere.

I loathe advice for using less water.
If you are already not wasteful, it seems the way to save water is not to wash, not to wash clothes, not to water plants, not to flush the toilet....and other revolting measures!

My biggest waste is running water while awaiting the hot tap to run hot water.

Teenagers are wasteful of gas electricity and water- moan though they may about green issues.

Your water bill- meter or not, will be one of your smaller problems- gas and electricity are going to double or more in price the way things look just now.

@Daphnise

I loathe advice for using less water. If you are already not wasteful, it seems the way to save water is not to wash, not to wash clothes, not to water plants, not to flush the toilet....and other revolting measures!

My biggest waste is running water while awaiting the hot tap to run hot water.

Teenagers are wasteful of gas electricity and water- moan though they may about green issues.

Your water bill- meter or not, will be one of your smaller problems- gas and electricity are going to double or more in price the way things look just now.

Agreed. I’m already very careful with water. I don’t want to wash less, or wash my clothes less, or flush the toilet less.

If the water companies focussed more on fixing leaks, I'm pretty sure we'd be in a much better position, water-wise, than we are now.

And yes, re gas and electricity. I'm just glad I signed up to a two year fix just before this kicked off. I'd normally only do a year, but went for two this time. God knows where we will be in two years, however. It's concerning.

£44 per month for 4 people, with two adults WFH full time. It actually went down when we moved into a house with a meter, which I find really surprising!

We're in Cornwall, so very expensive water. House of 2 adults. We keep our bills to £30 a month(ish) by not showering every day, collecting "run the water hot run off water" in a bucket to flush the loo, not flushing every ( wee) use, four water butts for garden/ car washing etc.
It is flipping hard work.

@Daphnise I totally agree with you!

We have a combi boiler so water is hot straight out the tap, although I have said we shower daily, we don't . As I mentioned up thread we don't flush throughout the night and of course the kids aren't here all the time.

We don't have a garden right now so that is a cost I can't quantify, but we're not gardeners either and the garden is just lawn so I don't actually expect to need any water for that. The only place I can see where we can cut down is laundry and dishwashing - and I really don't know how we can do that!

New toilet and shower might help. We'll see.

@NoWordForFluffy - you are SO right about that. If anyone lives in Liverpool you'll probably know about the water works required to fix enormous leaks - two within three years on Prescot Road in Dovecot (I think - same place both times!) and just last year up the road from me. Can't imagine those have been helpful...

@FlipFlops4Me

We're with South West Water. Two of us showering daily, washing machine running once a day (sometimes twice), likewise dishwasher. I pay £54 per month.

It's very expensive down here - something to do with having to have the facilities etc for when the population triples in the summer season.

The amount of coastline is something to do with it, too. Apparently water companies have statutory responsibilities relating to this, and the South West has a lot more coast than many areas!

Yep, it's the coastline. I'd like to see a tourist tax that puts back into infrastructure, including water. Probably a discussion fir another day.
We do get the £50 government subsidy, I suppose!

I'm also in the UU supply area and on a meter. 3 bed terrace with small garden that I haven't watered. 2 teenage daughters who spend ages in the shower and washing machine probably does 7-10 washes a week, no dishwasher. the 3 of us have been home WFH and school since we moved in.
Based on their assumption of 290 l per day for 3 people I'm paying approx. £44 per month. Your post prompted me to check the meter and I have actually used approx. 2/3rd of what they estimate.
Shower usage will depend on flow and time rather than being how the water is heated but a direct flow off a combi boiler is probably higher than an electric shower except a power shower. The fridge will be minimal.
Hope this helps/

As a general rule of thumb if you under occupy a house you are better of with a water meter and if you are full or over occupy it tends to be better fixed.

We're on a water meter with Thames Water. We do use a lot of water, but always consistently.

Our water bill has gone up 50% over the past year!! No increase in usage.

Gas and electric prices are bonkers too!

GUESS WHAT.

Firstly - we’re not moving next week because of incompetent solicitors so that’s annoying.

But I’ve just had an email from UU. They’re doing works for a week overnight which consists of ‘flushing the system’.

Ok that’s fine - but then the help card says to run the cold water for 20 minutes to get it to run right. It’s not an issue for us as we’ve not yet moved - but it says nothing about those on meters being reimbursed for this potentially daily cost. Which doesn’t seem very fair tbh.

@Bobsyer

GUESS WHAT.

Firstly - we’re not moving next week because of incompetent solicitors so that’s annoying.

But I’ve just had an email from UU. They’re doing works for a week overnight which consists of ‘flushing the system’.

Ok that’s fine - but then the help card says to run the cold water for 20 minutes to get it to run right. It’s not an issue for us as we’ve not yet moved - but it says nothing about those on meters being reimbursed for this potentially daily cost. Which doesn’t seem very fair tbh.

Call them to discuss this- might not be advertised but if you are requested to do things like this and they expect it to use a certain amount of water/takes a certain amount of time you should be reimbursed. I can't remember off the top of my head what this tends to be.

We’re about £600pa for 2 adults and 2 teenagers. Showers, washing machine, dishwasher etc but never for the garden. We have water butts and when it’s gone it’s gone. The drier and sunnier parts of the garden have drought tolerant plants. Disproportionately enrages me to see water wasted on frou frou planting and lawns, and I say that as a keen gardener