Typical water bill for a 3 bed house?

[kisaki333]

Heya,

I just recently moved to a new house. A 3 bed semi. It's my first house. Before, I only ever lived in flats.

I'm curious what your typical water bill is for a similar house?

I got my first water bill and i am a bit surprised... at sbout £60/month, it's almost double what we used to pay in our 2 bed apartment! I get it needs to be higher, but double?? It's the same people living here so technically the same consumption... The property is unmetered.

Does this sound about right or did they possibly make a mistake?

If you’re unmetered i believe the consumption doesn’t matter. You’ll get charged for what they think you are using. Our three bed semi was £43 a month unmetered and we switched to a meter and it’s £25ish a month.

That seems a lot. I pay £41 per month for a 4 bed with 4 people living in it. Can you get a meter fitted?

That’s nuts! I’ve got a three bed (just me and DP) and it’s about £13 a month?
Where abouts are you? When I was living in Devon south west water were extortionate

That's a lot of money. We're on a meter (four bed detached) with Severn Trent and its £21 a month. I would definitely see if you can have a meter fitted.

It will also depend on who your water company are.

3 bed semi here, I take baths every night and my DH showers twice a day most days. We pay about £42 a month with 3 people living here. It will be because you're unmetered. Just ring them up- I'm sure they'll sort it out for you. 😁

I would get a meter, we pay £40 a month for 3 bed detached, 2 people but we do use a fair bit of water.

£56 not on a meter.

There’s a Water Meter Calculator on MSE which may help you see if it would be right for you.

Things to consider: amount of people living in the house, frequency of baths, usage of water using appliances, any extras like hot tubs or pools.

3 bed semi here, under Affinity water. We pay £38 a month. I am convinced it would be less if we had a meter as it’s just the 2 of us but due to some ridiculous plumbing set up on our street, we can’t have one fitted.

Three bed semi, two adults, two very hygienic teens and we're on a meter...£67 a month.

If you're unmetered you can use as much or as little water as you wish and it won't make a difference to how much you pay. Your bill is partly based on the rateable value of your property and so that's why you're seeing a difference after moving from your flat.

Ring your water company. They can tell you if you would be better off on a meter. If you swapped to a meter and found you were worse off they used to allow you to swap back within the first year. I'm not sure whether you can still so that now though.

3 bed house, unmetered. We pay £61 a month over 8 months.

Ours is £47 per month, no meter

3 bed end of terrace, Anglian Water £30pm

3 bed semi, 2 adults and 2 children, £60 a month on a meter and that’s with us watching how long we are in the shower, limiting the number of baths etc at one point it was over £80! The meter was already here when we moved in, I would never choose to have one!!

Do some posters not understand how water rates work? The only factors are the rateable value and where you live.

Unless your water company has made a huge cock up it costs what it costs. Get a meter fitted if you think it would be cheaper

When I lived in an unmetered 3 bed property we paid £88 a month, but that's under south west water. Now in a 3 bed metered property we pay approx £40 a month, but I expect that to increase as DD is showering more frequently now.

Completely agree. It's rather worrying that people competent enough to own property don't understand this simple thing.

What someone in a 3 bed rateable value pays in Birmingham has absolutely no comparison to what someone in a 3 bed rateable value in Cardiff pays. Completely different companies and the charge is the the charge. Throw in water meters and you have even more variables that make zero difference.

If you aren't happy having the security of unmeasured water get yourself a meter and pay for every drop instead. But be careful, you only have a short time to change your mind then it's permanent.

They generally say that if the number of people < number of bedrooms then it’s cheaper to be metered.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Is it a cockup or just the price in my area. My company is Thames Water. Their support is SHIT so i want to get an idea before i contact them.

Despite what some ppl say, I think a meter would be a bad idea, I've been called a duck before! 😅

We're on a meter with Wessex Water and we pay between £18-£24 a month, depending on consumption. We live in a 3 bed house (2 adults and 2 kids). When we were unmetered, our monthly bills were £48.

If you're not on a meter you pay a flat fee for the year irrespective of how much you use, plus the sewerage equivalent flat fee. Normally you can spread it over 10 months.
Water rates are based on the Rateable Value of the property set by the council rates department before 1989 (pre Poll tax days). Generally bigger houses in posher areas had higher Rateable values. Rates haven't been used as a basis of charging since 89 as everything built (or converted) since then is metered. Obviously older houses still exist without meters until the owner makes the switch.

Ours is £39 per month for a 4 bedroom but was a lot higher before we got a water meter installed

5-bed (6-bed if you are a try-your-luck-estate-agent), 4 of us, lots of laundry.
Metered water bill (Thames water) is 3
£35-ish a month.
The biggest difference was when we changed the shower head and our bill was halved. We also noticed that our hot water tank now lasts 4 showers even with a much reduced boiler temp.
Whereas before, we would have to have the hot water on and at a high temp to heat the tank if all 4 of us needed showers.