Should I get one fitted.

Currently live with my Fiancee in a 4 bed victorian terrace. Water prices based on the council tax band which means we are paying something like £40 a month for our water.

When I was living down in Somerset on my own, I think I was paying about a tenth of that.

We are thinking of changing to a meter. Are there any reasons we shouldn’t. We have no garden to speak of. Spend most of the time out of the house at work, take showers not baths. Have modern heating and appliances. It seems like a no brainer and could more than halve the bills?

Anyone done it and regretted it?

Im on a meter and pay £24 a month. For me, mrs yinn and yinn jnr.

We were forced to have a meter when we moved to our current house – company fits meter when property changes hands now.

Glad we did.

Only issue woudl be if you had a long term, undetected, leak after the meter coudl cost you a lot…

Water meters only have benefit and that is for the water companies to find leaks easier at your expense.

Very likely to be worth your while. Most water companies have some form of cost calculator on their website to allow you to estimate in advance what your likely usage + bills would be. Or, if you don’t for some odd reason trust your water company, try CCWater’s rather clunkier but downloadable version here

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.388

And if you don’t save money you can switch back within a year.

Wish I’d had one fitted earlier – live on my own and £17 a month with most of the cost made up of the standing charges.

There was a device which shut off the water if there was a leak but can’t find details of it.

I was paying 47 a month and moved to a meter and now pay 21

I live in a three bed house on my own, just paid a six-month water meter bill for £54. So around the £100 / year mark.

Right then, I’ll add it to the list of jobs…

£14 a month on a meter. Includes taxes and sewerage. Three of us. We are fairly careful though.

Water meters only have benefit and that is for the water companies to find leaks easier at your expense.

Rubbish – water meters make water companies find and fix leaks at other people’s expense

We went from having a meter at our old place to being on standing charge at our new house – I swapped back to a meter as fast as I possibly could

Only issue woudl be if you had a long term, undetected, leak after the meter coudl cost you a lot…

Get on fitted inside your house rather than in the street. That way if you have a supply pipe leak it will be before the meter and you won’t end up paying.

Had one at the last rented place. We became suspiciopus there was a leak after the meter when we had astronomical bills (several hundred quid a quarter), and then proved it by turning everything off and could see the meter still whirring around.

Took it up with water co; not interested and told that it was our problem. Took it up with landlord (as there was no leak in the flat it was clearly under the heavily-used drive between meter at boundary and flat). He was sympathetic but not looking to do anything (he was a builder) as it wasn’t costing him anything – told us it was our problem. After the next huge bill, I researched harder and found that water cos do have to eventually consider a partial refund if you have reported it. So to cut a long story slightly shorter I made a complete pain of myself to the water co whilst telling landlord I would dig up drive but as I didn’t know what I was doing it might be some time before it was finished…..! That had the desired result and he fixed it the same week (it was a massive leak) and water co eventually gave us a decent refund.

From the above, I personally wish I didn’t have to have one of the blasted things as I was considerably out of pocket for a long time (over a thousand quid) but from a wider perspective I suppose it was good as it eventually found the leak and saved valuable resources. The moral of the story is if you are renting you are always caught in a netherworld between landlord and suppliers. We had a similar problem at that flat with the gas meter which was reading cubic feet but the gas supplier thought it was cubic metres, but that’s another story.

We used to pay £40+ a month for a 3 bed semi with two of us living here – we now pay £12! I had great fun when it was first fitted seeing how many litres of water everything used but the novelty soon wore off.

I think I read somewhere if there are fewer people than bedrooms you were likely to benefit from having a meter fitted.

Wasn’t there a horror story onthe news last year about someone getting a water meter installed and the first month costing a grand due to a leak on the wrong side of the meter and the water authrotiy still charged the householder.

I have a two bed in Havant and pay the same as allthepies but in Plymouth I was glad to have a meter otherwise I was looking at bills similar to firestarter.

I’m in Somerset, we’re on a meter and pay £30/month to Wessex Water for just 2 of us – only have a shower & don’t wash the car there. Now wondering if we should be checking for leaks!

if the meter is internal go for it. generally the fit can be reversed (for billing purposes) in the firsy year.

the issue around charging for leaks is complex, most water companies now give allowances for the sewerage element. It is current practice to bill for the water. However as companies start internal meter fits as policy (usually with AMR) there is a very good argument under Licence Condition E that householders with boundary meters should not be charged for external leakage. The key would be to wait to formal policy is changed and then request an internal meter. It will get turned down but your case will be strong for a full leak allowance for external leaks.

Meter users generally save money unless they are porfligate (power showers, jet wash, irrigation) however part of the reasoning for fitting meters is to encourage the profligate not to be.

Had a leak between the meter and the house, bills were pretty high. Landloard wasn’t too bothered.
Southern water were initially not much help, but I persevered and got them to look into it. Basically if they can get to the leak outside the house, they will fix it FOC. Took them about 3 holes iun 3 months before they found the leak and fixed it. Southern Water also estimated our consumption based on previous bills and didn’t charge the extra from the leak.
If you suspect a leak shut off the mains in the house and look at your meter, if its still going round you have a leak.

I’ve moaned about this very subject before. Live on my own in a 3 bedroom house, garden is never watered, car is hardly washed, bikes are washed, I shower and never have a bath. I do wash clothes frequently though.

Paying £25 per month on a meter which is daylight robbery.

I don’t even know where my meter is!

I pay £59 a month for 10 months on water rates. We are 2adults 2 children 1 baby in a 3 bed. Usual household usage plus bike washing but no car washing or hosing of garden.Mostly showers , washing machine takes a battering though, but it is a new one so should be reasonably rated??

Am i likely to be better off or is this a reasonable amount monthly, not thought about it before this thread.

We live in a 3 bed ex council semi 2 adults (at least in age 😆 ) and 1 soon to be 2 children , we pay £23 a month.

oops double post 😳

I don’t even know where my meter is!

ring up and ask someone to show you where it is, also check its only you on the supply. Unless you are in the SW you are definitely paying too much

On a meter – pay £26/month for 2 people in four bed house -and yes the less people than bedrooms thing does apply, although we are are showers/water butts etc, so reasonably careful. The rateable value of the property when we bought it was £660/year!!! so it was a no brainer and in the past monthly costs have been as low as £12. FWIW we are with Wessex Water who have always been v good & always adjust the DD down if usage drops without us doing anything. Our meter is in the pavement on our boundary.

What I found most annoying is that with Wessex Water, I pay almost as much for sewarage as I do for the supply itself – apparently it’s because they’ve got lots of coastline they have to look after, or some other tosh…

What I found most annoying is that with Wessex Water, I pay almost as much for sewarage as I do for the supply itself

and in time you will pay more, sewerage network has massive (ongoing) underinvestment, ever tightening discharge consents, ongoing sludge disposal issues

Wessex struggles because IIRC some of the discharge consents into chalk streams are very tight.

however in Wessex they are investing in wind turbines and sludge digestion to generate biogas, so they might be paying you to poo yet!

My mum and dad came back from 3 weeks in Cyprus to a huge (several hundred) water bill, turns out they had a leak about 1 metre onto their property. The house insurance paid for the repair and SW Water said they had discretion to waive the bill. 🙂

hmm, I’m going to phone my water company tonight. moved to a new house 3 months ago, kept our monthly payments of 26 quid a month going, just got a letter saying we owe them 70 quid for the last three months….