When I had a water meter fitted I had the option that I could have it disconnected in the first 13 months if I wanted.
I don’t see anyone rushing to have a meter fitted. Some new estates may have them installed at build time, but householders have to pay to have one fitted retrospectively. If they were fitted free AND gave smaller bills, that would be a different story.
We did too sue.
Anglian Water were very helpful with everything regarding Water Meters and the case for a Water Meter was obvious for us yet our next door neighbours (just the two of them too) are still on the standard, non-metered rate which I’ve read on AW site is £48 per month, which is 54% more than we pay now but will be 33% more than we will be paying from March onwards, so still a saving of £144 per annum.
By the way, we will be paying £432 per annum as of March so all of you out there paying those ridiculously small annual amounts beware - it may not last much longer as all the Water Providers are in touch with each other all the time.
Good Luck to you in the meantime though. 
stevmk2
Steve, is that water only or water + sewage?
We pay £166 pa. for non-metered water and £193 pa for sewage , but if we lived in a much posher house, we might pay as much as your neighbours.
Last year we had a water meter fitted, it has reduced our bills from £40 a month to £19 a month, Yorkshire water fitted it free, i installed water butts for the garden, all working out very well.
I had a bad experience with a water meter in a property we had in Dorset. There was a leak between the meter which was by the gate and the house . This was in 1978 and the bill came to over £1000 which we had to pay. There was no indication of a leak, the first we knew about it was when the bill came in .
Ooh Meg that was a lot of money then, well it still is really. I try to keep an eye on the meter so hopefully won’t be caught out.
For us it’s going to be £432 per annum from March with our meter and that’s both water and sewage Grumble but it was £312!
I’ve emailed them about the increase because I think it’s too much now but I doubt that they’ll reduce it, even though we only had about £60 debit which could be cleared @ £5 per month more, not the £10 they’ve foisted on us!
For our neighbours, (without actually asking them), Anglian Water’s site says £576 for average usage for non-metered and again that’s both water & sewage.
They do water the garden far more than we do, with a hose, so they could be paying more than that.
They’re good friends as well as our neighbours and we’ve tried to tell them that there’s no need to water the garden as frequently as they do and suggested a meter but they seem to think that a metered supply is more expensive when in fact it worked out fine for us!
They’ll still be paying £144 per annum more than us in the year from March onwards but they still won’t entertain the idea of a meter! stevmk2
May work well for some but a blanket statement like that could bankrupt some of us.
We have washing machine on twice or three times a day, 3 or 4 showers a day, bathing the dogs, washing up 3 times a day. No I think we would be paying more if we had one fitted.
Sorry was talking about normal people:twisted:
Try contacting your Water Authority Julie - they may well do what others do now and allow you to try a water meter and, if you are not happy they’ll leave it place in but it won’t be configured so you’ll be un-metered again.
That’s what Anglian Water told us but they also gave us estimates of possible savings too.
No harm in asking is there? stevmk2
I was thinking of having a water meter fitted as I live alone. After talking it over with me sisters though we decided against it in case I want to sell the house - it could put off potential heavy water users.
I believe if you leave the next owners will have to have a water meter fitted.
Check it out.
Very interesting to hear how you pay for water. In NSW you pay for sewage at the same time to the water board however over the last 30 years a lot has changed.
Raw sewage is now treated and no longer just pumped a few Kms off shore as it used to be , in fact locally the steel works buys the tertiary treated effluent for cooling water.
Drinking water has been on a meter for donkey’s years but until recently it was less than a dollar a Kilolitre but after the last drought the state government panicked into building a desal plant (which is now turned off and won’t be needed for years even if it never rained again) so now our water costs about $2 (£1) a kilolitre. BTW it is also filtered because being as Australia is made of iron ore and people used to complain that after rain when the dams were stirred up the water used to stain their clothes brown so they had to wash it again.
However my combined water and sewage bill is $85 (£43) a quarter but that is including my pensioner discount - if I was paying the full price it would be about $240 (£120) a quarter.
To be honest I don’t think that is too bad.
BTW this is the case around Sydney, Wollongong, Blue Mountains area other communities get their water from different sources such as rivers or bores so their charges are different.
You could over come this by having a WM fitted in the house.
My meter is on the property line (as they all are - for the convenience of the reader) but every so often I check the meter is not moving when all the taps are shut. It is not an arduous task.
I’ve now gone through our Water Bills since 2008 and found that our latest bill claims we’ve used nearly 30% more water - so I’m querying that with Anglian Water and i want them to check our meter.
We are creatures of habit and, year-on-year we’ve used almost exactly the same amount of water annually for 4 years so I don’t understand this 2013 - 2014 ‘blip’ at all.
Yes, we have a garden, which we do care for and grow our own vegetables, but we have four water butts and use that accumulated reserve to water sparingly if necessary when near-drought conditions occur, which can be annually for us here in Milton Keynes and I do mean sparingly as most plants can cope with a damn sight less water than you’d think!
We NEVER, EVER use tap water so I cannot see how our water consumption can possibly have increased by almost 30% in in one year!
It’ll be interesting to see the response from Anglian Water - especially since I’ve informed them I’ve sent copies of my email to Ofwat and my MP. stevmk2
Have you tried what I suggested in the previous post? Just make sure all the water in the house is off then note the reading when you go out, recheck when you come back (obviously the longer the better) if it has moved then you have a leak somewhere.
I found a leak under the house that way due to a split copper pipe. Worth checking yourself rather than waiting for your water company to do exactly the same thing.
My bill says it’s from 09/08/13 to 14/01/14 that’s 5 months (odd number) it’s £56 for water and £71 sewerage including standing charges of £18 for water and £23 for sewerage. I have no idea whether that’s a lot but seems more than before I had meter! I paid £48 pm approx for both when we were in a larger house without a meter. Anyone good at maths?
Is that the total for those 5 months Twizard?
If it is, and includes Tax, it works out to about £25 per month, which is near enough to what we were on @ £26 per month for the latter half of the year.
On our bill though it showed that we were no longer in Credit so they’ve increased the monthly DD to £36 from March of this year to claw-back the £60 ‘arrears’.
That’s what I’m asking them about now - why are we now apparently using almost 30% more water than the last 4 years when nothing has actually changed to cause that increased water consumption! stevmk2