Massive Water Bill
Discussion
I realise how tedious these stories can be so will try to keep it brief;
For over 5 years I had been recieving estimated water bills for the meter just outside my property. With hindsight this was very odd for that length of time. Now of course I realise that they couldn’t actually find it!
In September last year Thames Water finally found it to replace with a smart meter.
Closing bill on the old meter? About £3.5k !!!
Anyone know if I have a leg to stand on regarding their failure to inpect the meter for over 5 years? They have statutory requirements in that regard I believe.
It may well have been overreading but of course it’s gone now.
For over 5 years I had been recieving estimated water bills for the meter just outside my property. With hindsight this was very odd for that length of time. Now of course I realise that they couldn’t actually find it!
In September last year Thames Water finally found it to replace with a smart meter.
Closing bill on the old meter? About £3.5k !!!
Anyone know if I have a leg to stand on regarding their failure to inpect the meter for over 5 years? They have statutory requirements in that regard I believe.
It may well have been overreading but of course it’s gone now.
As I understand it, there is a limit to the number of times a water company can give estimated bills. My water company gives bills for every quarter, if that went on for 5 years, that would be 20 estimated bills and I am sure they can’t do that. Check the Ofwat website OP as there could well be useful information on there.
A few years ago I had an issue in that, after a number of estimated bills, they did a reading which lead to a larger than normal bill. After checking all my water works, I discovered that two of my toilet systems had a leak. After consultations with the water company, they agreed to give me a large, one-off discount, purely because of the large number of previously estimated bills. You may be able to negotiate something similar. Good luck!
A few years ago I had an issue in that, after a number of estimated bills, they did a reading which lead to a larger than normal bill. After checking all my water works, I discovered that two of my toilet systems had a leak. After consultations with the water company, they agreed to give me a large, one-off discount, purely because of the large number of previously estimated bills. You may be able to negotiate something similar. Good luck!
Edited by Mr.Chips on Tuesday 8th April 16:49
I'm afraid I don't have anything of note to add, but following with interest as I'm going to be in the same position.
When we moved into our house in 2021 the info we had said the water was not on a meter. I while later I noticed that the water bills, estimated, had a meter number on them. I called Thames Water to ask them about this, and to ask where the meter is (because it's not visible). They looked at their notes and said that it's half a meter from the road, left side of the drive as looking from the road, but that they had a note on the file that the engineer couldn't find it. They even sent an engineer round and he couldn't find it either.
I've now found the meter, it's buried under some drive gravel (exactly where they said it would be!). I've not got round to telling them yet, but I'm expecting similar to the OP: a bill to make up the difference between actual and estimated reading, which could go back years!
A friend of mine who used to work for Thames said that in situations like this, they can get a base reading and then another one a while later (a period of a few weeks), and then average it out back to when you moved in to get a fair idea of what your usage is, but not sure about that as what's to stop me cutting out as much water use as possible during that period? Plus I expect Thames want to claw back all the money they can get their hands on just now!
Please update when you get an answer OP.
When we moved into our house in 2021 the info we had said the water was not on a meter. I while later I noticed that the water bills, estimated, had a meter number on them. I called Thames Water to ask them about this, and to ask where the meter is (because it's not visible). They looked at their notes and said that it's half a meter from the road, left side of the drive as looking from the road, but that they had a note on the file that the engineer couldn't find it. They even sent an engineer round and he couldn't find it either.
I've now found the meter, it's buried under some drive gravel (exactly where they said it would be!). I've not got round to telling them yet, but I'm expecting similar to the OP: a bill to make up the difference between actual and estimated reading, which could go back years!
A friend of mine who used to work for Thames said that in situations like this, they can get a base reading and then another one a while later (a period of a few weeks), and then average it out back to when you moved in to get a fair idea of what your usage is, but not sure about that as what's to stop me cutting out as much water use as possible during that period? Plus I expect Thames want to claw back all the money they can get their hands on just now!
Please update when you get an answer OP.
Just to answer a few questions that have come up;
I’ve been in the house a long time; about 18 years. I’d have to do some serious digging to see if there was a water meter reading at handover, but I’ll have a good look.
I’ve found a proper human reading from 2015 and another from 2019. Then the final one on the old meter was in August 2024.
The useage ranged from 0.6 cubic meters per day to 0.9ish.
Since then have been on the new meter. And the daily useage seems higher if anything which is annoying.
When the big bill came in I phoned and it seemed that they’d listened. They said that they’d put me on a ‘plan’ for a few months and then they could work out what the real useage was on the new meter.
So now that ‘plan’ period has come to an end and all they’ve done is put me on a new one plan clearly designed to recoup the original £3.5k by charging £300 over the top every quarter.
At this stage I don’t really know if I’ve been stitched up or have had a result!
I will have a moan to them in writing about it all. (The billing call centre is like trying to explain all this to a cat).
Will update as things progress, as others seem to be in a similar boat.
I’ve been in the house a long time; about 18 years. I’d have to do some serious digging to see if there was a water meter reading at handover, but I’ll have a good look.
I’ve found a proper human reading from 2015 and another from 2019. Then the final one on the old meter was in August 2024.
The useage ranged from 0.6 cubic meters per day to 0.9ish.
Since then have been on the new meter. And the daily useage seems higher if anything which is annoying.
When the big bill came in I phoned and it seemed that they’d listened. They said that they’d put me on a ‘plan’ for a few months and then they could work out what the real useage was on the new meter.
So now that ‘plan’ period has come to an end and all they’ve done is put me on a new one plan clearly designed to recoup the original £3.5k by charging £300 over the top every quarter.
At this stage I don’t really know if I’ve been stitched up or have had a result!
I will have a moan to them in writing about it all. (The billing call centre is like trying to explain all this to a cat).
Will update as things progress, as others seem to be in a similar boat.
Your bill should show the charge per cubic meter of water used, any standing charges and also wastewater charges (often based on the volume of water used).
This allows you to work out an average bill for the last five years to see if what they are charging vs what you have paid is reasonable.
This allows you to work out an average bill for the last five years to see if what they are charging vs what you have paid is reasonable.
Mandat said:
swisstoni said:
The useage ranged from 0.6 cubic meters per day to 0.9ish.
Just to pick up on this point, that is 600 - 900 litres per day, which seems a huge amount. I send a manual reading to Thames Water on the 1st of every month so that any high usage due to a leak could be noticed in good time.
Simpo Two said:
Mandat said:
swisstoni said:
The useage ranged from 0.6 cubic meters per day to 0.9ish.
Just to pick up on this point, that is 600 - 900 litres per day, which seems a huge amount. Recently I got another high bill. Took a photo to show there was a misread but it took another month before it was corrected.
Thames Water. I don't have a direct debit anymore for reasons that might be understood.
Mandat said:
swisstoni said:
The useage ranged from 0.6 cubic meters per day to 0.9ish.
Just to pick up on this point, that is 600 - 900 litres per day, which seems a huge amount. There’s 2 of us plus student son who’s away most of the time.
Mrs S and I both prefer baths to shower and also run an irrigation system in the summer months but apart from that we might run the washing machine once a day and that’s about it.
JagYouAre said:
I'm afraid I don't have anything of note to add, but following with interest as I'm going to be in the same position.
When we moved into our house in 2021 the info we had said the water was not on a meter. I while later I noticed that the water bills, estimated, had a meter number on them. I called Thames Water to ask them about this, and to ask where the meter is (because it's not visible). They looked at their notes and said that it's half a meter from the road, left side of the drive as looking from the road, but that they had a note on the file that the engineer couldn't find it. They even sent an engineer round and he couldn't find it either.
I've now found the meter, it's buried under some drive gravel (exactly where they said it would be!). I've not got round to telling them yet, but I'm expecting similar to the OP: a bill to make up the difference between actual and estimated reading, which could go back years!
A friend of mine who used to work for Thames said that in situations like this, they can get a base reading and then another one a while later (a period of a few weeks), and then average it out back to when you moved in to get a fair idea of what your usage is, but not sure about that as what's to stop me cutting out as much water use as possible during that period? Plus I expect Thames want to claw back all the money they can get their hands on just now!
Please update when you get an answer OP.
How far out is the actual reading from the estimate? How do you know what the reading was when you moved in? When we moved into our house in 2021 the info we had said the water was not on a meter. I while later I noticed that the water bills, estimated, had a meter number on them. I called Thames Water to ask them about this, and to ask where the meter is (because it's not visible). They looked at their notes and said that it's half a meter from the road, left side of the drive as looking from the road, but that they had a note on the file that the engineer couldn't find it. They even sent an engineer round and he couldn't find it either.
I've now found the meter, it's buried under some drive gravel (exactly where they said it would be!). I've not got round to telling them yet, but I'm expecting similar to the OP: a bill to make up the difference between actual and estimated reading, which could go back years!
A friend of mine who used to work for Thames said that in situations like this, they can get a base reading and then another one a while later (a period of a few weeks), and then average it out back to when you moved in to get a fair idea of what your usage is, but not sure about that as what's to stop me cutting out as much water use as possible during that period? Plus I expect Thames want to claw back all the money they can get their hands on just now!
Please update when you get an answer OP.
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