Just received my water bill from Severn Trent, almost £500 for the year which for what's in effect a 2, plus a small single (my office), bed terraced house. I live alone and there is no bath, just a shower. Only a courtyard so no garden to water. Severn Trent's calculator indicated that I could pretty well halve my annual bill. Apparently once the meter is in I have the opportunity of two years to revert to an undeterred supply after which I'll be stuck with it. Any experience with this from the collective? I guess as a single person living in what is maybe considered a family house that might have a garden but doesn't really I should be, as they seem to indicate, better off on a meter.
My last house was over 800 quid without meter, 365 after fitting. Current house had it in from scratch.
The conspiracy theory is, that when everyone is on a meter, then water can be charged like petrol... X pence per litre.
You wouldn't by your petrol un metered, so what conspiracy theory would that be then. It,s a no brainer been on a meter for years, pay for what you use..... simple.
I changed mine years ago to a meter and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done with regards to saving money on house bills. I thought the rule was you have 1 year to decide and then if you don’t change that property will always have a meter. It’s one of them crazy things, they have to charge big amounts as it’s so not regulated when most properties aren’t on a meter people just use whatever. Whereas everything else you pay for what you use. I changed many many years ago to a meter and I went from paying something like £50 a month to about £15 a month and have always been in credit with the amount I use. Before if I was away with work for weeks and weeks so weren’t even using an egg cup full I was still being charged the normal £50 whereas now I only pay for what I use. Believe me if you change and drastically lower your direct debit payments you’ll be kicking yourself why you never changed sooner.
I too am with Severn Trent, we have a meter. I have just paid my bill it was £330 for the year, we live in a 3 bed detached. there are four of us, but my sister in law stays about 30% of the time. I would say we are an average user user, we all shower every day, washing machine on twice a week.
Thanks all for your input. I'm new to the property though they billed me in September as soon as I moved in for the pro-rata remainder of the year. This latest bill is for this April until March next year. Previous property was a rural four bed semi and that was around the £200 mark per annum though being on a septic tank there was no sewerage or street drainage element (that last bit was something I hadn't seen before). Have applied for a meter, sounds like it should help to balance things out as £500 sounds ridiculous for one person. Doubt if I'll get away with anything off the first half of the bill due at the start of April but hopefully going forward. Will discuss with ST when they call next week.
680 quid a year with 5 people with Thames water.. 500 for one person doesn’t seem right. Might take a look at water meters myself.
i'm with Severn Trent as well, £15 a month, 3 bed semi, live by myself, massive saving for me, had a boundary box which means i didn't have the meter in the house,cost me £99 to have the boundary box installed
We used to pay £550/year... iirc £430-ish after switching to meter. 2 adults, 2 kids , 2 dogs and large garden with plenty of flowers.
I am in Severn Trent as well. I've got a meter that was here when I moved in. Glad to have it. As the sole occupier, I pay for what I use and quite happy with that.
You can pretty much guarantee that anything you do will incur costs and or hidden fees to bring it up to the same level of payment you are already making. Here in NZ for example, if you have a holiday home, you can apply to have the metered power, (as you already have a main dwelling with same company) as a unit rate only instead of a fixed daily rate plus unit rate. Therefore paying one lot of daily fixed rate and two lots of metered unit rate. Alright, I thought, sounds good, they sign me up and then immediately put the unit rate up to the point I am worse off. But wait, there's more! Now there will be a fee to change back! Cvnts!
Mine is the opposite, 5 bedroom house using Thames water my bill has gone from £450 per year to an estimated £900 plus. I have a garden which I do not water and there are four of us living in the household. I suspect this is my son and his wife using the washing machine all the time which has caused the rise.
We have a metre and pay around 400 a year. 3 bed house with 2 adults and 2 teens, washing machine on every day also run a koi carp pond and have a tropical garden which requires watering every day during the summer. No brainer for you sir
If your new to the property, is that a property you’ve purchased or rent? I always thought that when a property that was on rates is sold the water board automatically put a meter in and so the new owner didn’t have the choice? Only people who were on rates and request a meter have the option and therefore the option to switch back if they are worse off? Anyhow, it’s a no brainer, you will save a fortune, if I recall when I lived on my own I was paying something like £8 for water and £16 for sewage/waste (2 separate water boards where I was)
Purchased the place and likely to be here for 10 years plus if not until I'm carried out in a box, hopefully the latter won't predate the former Possibly dependant on the water board? Does it necessarily pay for them to do this? Can't recall if there was a new customer questionnaire, might have declared it was a single occupancy, which given the responses above, they'd be doing themselves out of revenue. Severn Trent's website stated a 2 year grace period from installation, or 4 bills, to decide on whether to remain on a metered supply or revert to un-metered.
Wessex Water down here do, when the mrs moved house some years ago they just knocked on the door a few days later and said your on a meter now. I’m surprised STW don’t? I presume they make it back from those that use a lot of water, which seems fair enough to me? Shame they couldn’t do the same with the road fund licence?
