Urgent advice needed over high water bills

A question about : Urgent advice needed over high water bills

Hello all,

I hope you can help. I will keep it short and to point.

Water board say my friend is averaging 1250 liters a day - The house hold has one adult and three children children are teenagers 14 and 16 and other is 4. The parent baths each day and the teenagers are using bath each two to three days and one of them showers each morning, but always is quick and turn off water when soaping up etc, so very carefull in an out in 8 mins but water is not on only for 5 minutes max a morning.

Toilets are not flushed unless need to for a number two lol. But toilet use is clamped down and flushed about 4 - 5 times a day max. After that its just normal drinking water making tea, the dishwasher is used each day on eco hotpoint setting, the washign machine is used once a day also every day.usual stuff. No hose use etc, maybe once every three weeks to wash car.

Why is the bill gone from 45 pounds to Ј78 pounds to clear off a bill of 800 thats run up as the Ј45 was not high enough, they were never told about the rises in useage and that they should put the charges up, only odd statement bu thats impossible to read and it did not state upping the payment to cover it.

I have witnessed there usage and no way do they use more than my friends and myself and they all pay much less and no hassle on calls saying your using to much water, I ran a test to see if dials still moved when all water was turned off and was ok, so i am stumped how it can average 1250 a day in liters. Just des not work out....HELP

Thank you in advance, btw water board wotnt listen.

Best answers:

• Check you haven't got a leak (so turn off the water supply and see if the meter keeps going round - if it does you have a leak). That's what happened with us recently and our bill was reduced drastically and we also got a nice refund.
  If you do have a leak just pray it isn't under the building, otherwise that would be tricky to fix.
• Hi, the water test has been done, it stoped going round. This is frustrating as it is clear as night/day that, that much water useage is not being used.
  1x bath
  1xshower
  per day
  1x dishwash eco seeting per day
  1x wash machine use full load per day the odd day two times. on eco settings
  Normal use of water to drink etc
  toilet flush lets say 6 times a day somedays less then that for sure.
  How can that be 1250 liters? I personally do not get that. I would say 600 liters no more. Thanks for the response.
• Have your friend tried reading the meter daily or even weekly him self rather than just waiting until a bill comes in and then trying to work it out. By doing his own measuring and recording he'd be able to see how much he is using and when.
  Once it's been used it has to be paid for so the best way is to monitor whilst it's being used. Making guesses based on what you think is being used isn't as good as reading the meter regularly.
• 1,250 litres is 1.25 cubic metres(m3). So that extrapolates to 456m3 pa.
  The UK average is 55m3 per person pa, so with 4 people around 220m3 pa.
  Are you sure that the economy measures you detail above have always been in place? or just since being told of the high consumption?
  As said above, get them to check daily with the 'economy' measures in place.
• Thank you, so that is double.
  Being serious, yes they need to check it properly and monitor it. But its written down dailly usuage and its always been like that. One bath a day not over filled, One shower a day being careful and tuning off inbetween soaping.
  The toilets have always been left until needed to flush so real cut back always, one person is 4 so uses no water at all really, the other two are at school all day, it does not make any sence as we have got together friends and there water consumption is more as more baths and more hose useage etc and yet their bills are Ј45 pounds, where friend in question is Ј78 now.
  It does not take much to work out somthing is up. People fill their polls up loads in summer they did not, and still other friends bills did not go up.
  Does anyone no a standard size bath say if it was full how manu liters it is? The baths used in house in question are just half full one a day and girls take one every two days, somtimes share, its that bad. Its just normal living nothing exaggerated, so dont no why they are being hit, if the meter is not spinning then where is the water useage? I think the bath and shower a day take no more than 400l if that lol, so where is 800l being used? as 1250 is average dailly use, its utter madness. What can be done now?
  Daily use
  1x bath
  1xshower
  6 toilet flush a day max
  kettle few times
  dishwasher x1
  washing machine x1
  bathroom extra useage brush teeth wash hands normal use.
  That to me should not be average a day 1250 liters????
  Thank you for your time on this guys, very kind of you, I dont no what next step is best to take as they say no leak and fine. Thats can not be fine just looking at the useage....
• Would you all say 1250liters a day for a family of four with youngest at 4 is too much? I just can not fathem out where the water is going? It is just unreal to think they use so much? I mean can a bath and shower take that much, the rest of the day is just a dishwaher and washing machine and they will only use a few hundreed. On eco settings allways, and modern hitpoint models. I just do not get it and do not know what the next step is...as the water board are, well meter is not spinning so its you, but is the meter actually working correct, can we challenge that? for 6 years it has been fine and nothing has changed and now its double the amount, and they say they are doing nothing different. HELP!!!
• There have been literally scores of posts over the years from people claiming they couldn't possibly have used xxxm3 as they only etc etc.
  Some have had meters changed and I don't think anyone has had a faulty meter; there has usually been a leak.
  The meter is extremely accurate in that the red figures measure Hundreds/tens/single units. It will be very simple to ensure no water is being used and get a container - say a 10 litre bucket and fill it say 5 times and check how much the meter has moved.
  Obviously you have to ensure that the meter is not moving before starting the test.
  To repeat the biggest culprit for leaks in a house are cisterns leaking back into the toilet bowl or overflowing outside.
• when you did the leak test, you did only turn off the stop tap inside the property, you didn't turn it off at the external meter as you need to keep that switched on
• Is the 1250 litres figure an historical one determined from water bills or is it actual consumption checked daily by reading the meter.
  I'm guessing that it might be either an erroneous read or estimate in the past that's just catching up with an actual.
  The only way to check if the 1250/day is correct is by reading the meter every day for a couple of weeks to see if it is actually true
• Matelodave - Thank you I will perform that and check it for them.
  Being serious, we have looked over the water useage of the house and there is no way that it can reach a figure of 1250 for a family of one female adult, 15 year old , 13 year old and 4 year old. Doing the normal thing in regards to water use, infact they are careful always, so 1250l must be the average use then for a family of that size would you all say? Maybe it is them and the meters are actually right and the average use for a family of four is 1250 a day.
  I just persoanally thought that is 100's over, the normal day useage just does not warrent that, they pay more than us and three adult sin house baths and showers each day and some night and water use to clean car etc and home all day. Yet our bill is lower by a long way. Makes no sense, guess they will have to lump it!!! What an awful amount of money for a family of four to have to pay for just normal living, no wonder people are finding it hard. Ј78 a month for water is madness, three kids out all day lol and one adult. awful!
  Dont no what to do now really the meter is not spinning when water stoped at stock !!!!. One bath and shower taking al that water wow! after that no one is in bar the adult, just kettle, washing machine and dishwasher once a day, they dont use 100's.
  Cheers for you input everyone, I will update you, only thing is if we get someone out to look. Just shocked Ј78 a month now and all for normal living, btw the toilets are economy flush too lol, makes me laugh, yesterday was used 4 times. Cheers
• As already said above, they really need to take their own readings daily over a period of time such as a week or a month and then go from there. plot them on a spreadsheet or graph and then multiply it up so see what the results are.
• As we have said, with the economy measures you describe, you won't use 1,250 litres(1.25m3) a day.
  It couldn't be easier to establish IF you have an internal leak. Simply watch the meter with no water switched on.
  Check the meter accuracy as described in post #8.
• First check usage at
  https://www.ccwater.org.uk/watermetercalculator/
  Estimate for this type of family is 170 m3 per year. Your suggestion of 1.25 m3 per day, suggests a serious leak.
  1 Switch off stop !!!! and take reading. Leave stop !!!! off all night. Do not run water or flush toilets while tap is closed. If meter moves overnight, leak could be in supply pipe to house, get water board involved. If meter did not move. Stage 2
  2 Turn on stop tap. If there is an in rush, and a cistern refills, this cistern(s) is leaking! You will need to clean washers etc in cistern. Do not forget the central heating header tank and the hot water header tank as well.
  Continue to take readings over time to ensure leak is cured. Average use is 50-55 m3 per year per adult. Suggested use for this property would be 170 m3 per year.
• ADVICE NEEDED ASAP. Yesterday we received a Ј3500 bill from Anglian Water. Now we have had a firm called Homeserve fix the pipes from the house and now it seems there's another leak. The first leak was their fault as the cowboys who fitted the water meter did so the wrong way and it gushed for ages. We had homeserv come out and repair the minor leaks.All was ok. Now I'm stressed and at an end. Whats my options here ? Can I sue the blighters. I wish we had never started having this meter installed. Any lawyers after some juicy compainsation work ?