HELP water bill..!!

A question about : HELP water bill..!!

Hi,

I am a student living in a two bedroom block of FLATS in sheffield.
We have no dishwasher, occasionally have baths, and do a reasonable amount of washing.

Our water bill (we have a meter) has come for the quarter. (1/9/04 to 31/12/04)

It is Ј100.07
We have apparently used 49 units of water.

Water Charged at 86.20p = Ј42.24
Standing Charge = Ј 7.07

Sewearge at 89.30p = Ј41.57
Standing charge = Ј00.35

Surface water = Ј8.84

Are there any discounts i can get. i think this bill is extremely high.

Ross

Best answers:

• The dates you have given are for 4 months,we are not in December yet,so that seems like a lot of water for 3 months as we are still in November.
  Where is the meter situated? If it is outside you could be paying for other peoples water,if it is in your flat then you are either using the water or you have a leak and if you have a leak then it would be apparrent as there would be water damage somewhere,unless you are in a ground floor flat and the leaking water is going underground.
  Not sure about rebates,but if you are on benefits there might be some assistance.
• If you phone your water supplier & tell them how many people live in your household & give a summary of your water usage, they should be able to give you a reasonable estimate of how much your water charges should be on avergage each billing period.
  If you feel there is a big difference between this & what you are being billed, you can then ask them to check the meter.
  Unfortunately there is no help available to pay water rates, even if you are on benefits or a low income.
• I think you have your dates wrong as we are not in december yet !
• The first thing to do is check that you don't have a leak or that the plumbing in the block of flats is correct. i.e. there isn't a feed to some other user/flat after your meter. Not that unusual in conversions.
  All you need to do is note a reading at a time when you are going out(and hence not using water). If the reading has changed when you get back - start investigating!
  I am puzzled how you can get a bill for a water meter in November giving consumption up to 31 December(my bill is half yearly and comes after the meter has been read) However as a Student(not renowned for settling bills!!) they may estimate your consumption and get you to pay in advance.
  For what it is worth I use approx 45 units in a 6-month period in a house with 3 people with all the appliances used regularly.
• Glad to see I'm not alone in on this topic and need help too. I have a 84yr old mother in a one bedroomed flat who got a Ј200 bill in september. I complained to Yorkshire Water after checking her previous bills for 4 years to find she had been paying on average Ј50 a quarter. Thery agreed something wrong. Sent inspector out to check for leaks. no leaks which I could have told them as meter doesn't move when taps off. another inspector thought meter might be reading two flat consumptions which now seems possible. Its a two storey flat mum on ground floor and a family in two bed on top floor. Meter is on edge of pavement outside. Anyway I contacted YW again last week and they now so no leaks no joint supply tell your mother to pay up. Her annual bills have been bewtween Ј250-Ј300. She has trwo baths a week, two loads of washing no dishwasher or garden or car to wash and stays with me every otrher weekend. so something is wrong but YW aren't interested in helping her. I've now written to Water Voice Yorkshire to try and get them to help as well as the Housing !!! who owns the prooperty to try and find out if they have plans to show where the pipe splits fot the two properties. I think the meter was installed before the split as no one asked mum at the time about it being a flat etc.
  Has anyone else got any suggestions on who I can write too. Mum is really upset and thinks ahe's going to prison if she doesn't stump up the Ј200 which she hasn't got.[img][/img]
• You might get some help here
• Sorry can't offer any ideas for solution other than what's been said. !Nellie's story made me wonder if Yorks Water can force her mum to pay up (or be cut off), seeing as she's an elderly lady. !
  Does anyone know what action YW are entitled to take against a pensioner whose bill is in dispute? !Should Nellie offer a payment on account till the dispute is settled or not? !Or should she re-state her case to YW and refuse to pay till it's properly investigated?
  PS Nellie I've pm'd you
• Thanks Flossie I'll be in touch.
  I have received a reply from Water Voice Yorkshire in the form of a letter. They say YW has a good complaints system which I need to go through. I'm about to respond to them to say YW aren't interested anymore. They say that they have forwarded my e-mail to a senior manager to look at. I hope that doesn't mean the understanding customer services manager. Anyway I'm going to send them copies of all correspondence between YW and me to see if they can get a better response.
• Nellie,
  In my experience, dealing with customer services and or 'senior' managers/supervisors gets you nowhere apart from where they've been told to 'send' you from their CS serviceing 'flowchart'. They hardly ever deviate from it.
  You'll certainly get a response by:
  * sending details of your complaint and e-mails to the Managing Director and Marketing Director in the mail by recorded delivery.
  * make sure you state in your letter that you also wish to claim some reasonable compensation for the hastle.
  * send a copy to the water watchdog authority and make it plain in you letter to YW that you've done this (ie., ".cc&quot.
  You should then get some sort of response reflecting YW's rejuvenated interest in your complaint!
• Great i'll try this. Looks like a night of letter writing. I agree the senior manager issue got me groaning as I knew that would be a dead end. I'll let you know how things develop.
• Jstyles - congrats on your v helpful first post - welcome aboard!
• Got all my letter ready last night to send Recorded Del to MD of YW as well as copies to Water voice yorkshire as suggested. got letter in post today to say Water voice had sent query to Yw and they are now carrying out an independant investigation from the first one. They've admitted my first complaint was handled badly and they should have at least replaced the meter if they could find no other fault. They are to get in touch and site visit so I keep your posted and keep my Md letter on hold
• Thames Water provide a guide to what your bill should be with a meter at www.thameswater.co.uk (select 'your home', 'water meters' and 'should i have a meter?'). Each company will be different but it should give you a ballpark figure based on the number of people in the house and their actual usage.
  The process for complaints is to get as far as you can with your water company and then escalate it to Ofwat / Water Voice.
  I've found that emails are the best way to communicate - no need to keep copies of letters / get to the post office for recorded delivery.
  Regarding paying on account, I'd recommend it as it puts off the debt collection process as it proves that you're acting in good faith - but work out how much you think you owe and pay that, DON'T pay the full amount. If they owe you a refund based on your calculations, don't pay anything but make sure you tell them why.
  They can't cut people's water off, either, so that's one less thing to worry about.
  One last thing, Thames Water have a policy of responding to all issues within 10 working days. If they don't, they credit your account with 20 pounds. (Dated emails come in handy for that!)
  Good luck!
• When we moved house 7 months ago, we entered the world of the water meter. After a phone call to Anglian Water, we were introduced to the Lowuser tarif. Six months on and our first bill.
  I phoned Anglian water to analyse our usage, as we had been extremely carefull ie reduced bathing, less flushing, no running taps etc, only to be told we were "borderline" users. To move to the next tarif which would allow more usage would cost about Ј100 per yr more.
  I explained that because one of us has a
  "abdominal stoma" and that "abominal stoma" is because of a urinary diversion (urostomy) we are deemed by the Disability Descrimination act as "incontinent", and as such, may well qualify for a reduction.
  "Oh no" was the reply, "you have to be in receipt of some form of benefit ie housing benefit etc to qualify".
  So you can have any of the abdominal stoma's, any of the issues that "they" concider would require extra water usage BUT and this is a big BUT, if you have any savings that would deny you applying for and getting the benefits that Anglian Water list, you can't get a reduction on your water bill.
• 49 cu. m. in South West would be Ј135 approx, sounds cheap compared with us. ! :'( !Having said that consumption looks high. 2 of us, dishwasher, washing machine, showers, dog---- about 2 cu. m./week. !Hope that is a help although am behind in post!! ???.
• https://www.awtf.org.uk/
  Anglian Water Trust Fund - helps people with water bills they cannot pay if they are on low income, benefits etc. To find out more look on their website above, you can download the forms to fill in, or contact the CAB. who should be able to help you fill out the forms. They are pretty straight forward.
  Good Luck