Lude Generation

Hi guyz.

So I've gotten a pretty horrendous water bill that I'm not sure what to do about. I've ignored it for a bit to figure out some stuff I'll explain in a minute. If you think tl;dr, go to the bottom of this post.

To sum it up, for the last 18 months we've been paying what works out at roughly £40 a month to Anglian Water for the privilege of tap water and flushing excrement away. As I'm sure you all know, these amounts are always an 'estimate' and luckily this has left us ~£250 in credit. I thought that was excellent news, thankyou very much Anglian Water for being a piggy bank. NO.

Next bill I get after the meter reading guy comes around (I think this was in January!), just shy of £600 for the period Jan-July. Apparently our water meter reading thing had almost tripled. Leaving us with an 'estimate' of £103 per month. For some reason this wasn't queried when the reading was done, and we were in the dark about it as I don't go and read my meter all the pissing time (it's in a 2 foot hole under our wheelie bins). So 6 months pass by, with no change in our circumstances i.e. we didn't suddenly start showering 43543 times a day or have anyone extra move in, and for a total of around 10 weeks I was actually home alone, ergo less water consumption! So we were left with this 600 quid bill, luckily the 250 we're in credit by has reduced it somewhat.

Phone calls have been made to these guys and they said we have to do flow and leak tests, etc. etc. Tests were done, everything is fine. The meter seems to be working fine, although I am no meter genius. The bloody person on the phone even said "Yeah it's really weird how it's just jumped up like that, something doesn't seem right."

So to sum up:

18 months @ £40 -> 6 months @ £103
We haven't done anything different, all is working as it should, Anglian Water say it's weird but still say we have to pay.

Any advice?

Also after notifying them that we're moving house, they kindly offered to do just transfer our existing direct debit and 'estimated' bill to the new address. That seemed stupid so the direct debit has been cancelled and a whole new account thingy will be set up, meters read and all that stuff.

I was going to suggest that you ask them to replace the meter, and then review future usage. But if your moving house that's not really an option.

My bro got a massive electricity bill once because his bills were all based on estimates & then one day they actually read it & they were miles out!

Maybe all of your previous bills have just been based on estimates, including that one where you were in credit (unlikely though).

Something definitely sounds amiss there anyway, I'd get it looked at by a third party. Ask the consumer council for water to investigate...

http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

Until then I would just point blank refuse to pay it because it is obviously wrong and they should really owe you money (based on your last bill & the fact you've probably used it less since then too). But if all else fails I would consider doing a runner... Cancel your direct debit and then when you move set it all up in another name (e.g. your missus).

Stuff them they legally can't cut you off or reduce your supply. I would however offer to pay a resonable amount or/and talk to the CAB probably the CAB first.

Thanks guys

As you say Rich all previous bills have been an estimate, but based on previous meter readings. That's why it seemed so odd. Originally I'd thought that maybe our current estimate (the high one) was in fact a true one and all this time we'd gotten away with a lower estimate/reading, but we've had readings before and it hasn't been picked up on.

I dunno if anyone else here is on Anglian Water, but I've spoke to my dad, and same no. of people in household, both houses use showers and washing machines and all that sort of stuff, yet his bill is around half of what my previous low bill was

I'll check out the CAB and CCW I'll dish out some rep where and when I can .

If there is no leak then dig out previous reads, they'll be on bills, actual reads here, work out from the unit price in M3 (cube meters) what your own average is and what your bills should be to date. Bit of a long way round I know but could be worth it to get some evidence from actual reads.

Importantly as the customer services people what your meter serial number is, it's stamped around the top of the meter somewhere and you'll be able to read it after a little wipe with a cloth etc, make sure they match, if ther serial numbers don't match you may have had a replacement meter put in and nobody got told which would explain the suddent jump. Not sure fire but these two bits of info could help you argue the case if nothing else.

Good luck dude.

Sorry to thread jack this a bit . But when you buy a new property do the council put a water meter in your new property?

All new properties have to be fitted with meters at construction, it will be done by the water company; for any old properties that don't have a meter and are on rateable values, you can request a meter to be fitted free of charge.

Vtecmec wrote:All new properties have to be fitted with meters at construction, it will be done by the water company; for any old properties that don't have a meter and are on rateable values, you can request a meter to be fitted free of charge.

I'm moving on to a new property which doesn't have a meter. I don't want a meter, I will wash my car everyday.