Please help! Ridiculously high water bill

[Love_London]

Hi,

We moved into our 4 bed house about a year ago and we've been paying 41 pounds as direct debit for our water bill. Recently we received a letter saying our usage is unusually high. I got the bill a bit later and guess what, we need to pay 700 pounds in addition to the 41 pounds that we have been paying by direct debit!!!

I find that extremely strange as before moving, we lived in a flat and we never paid more than 30 pounds per month for our water bill.

There are just two of us in the house and we are at work 9-6 and we have decked garden so don't even use water outside. Our lifestyle has not changed at all, so I can't see how it can go up suddenly.

We checked for the leak (i.e. checked water meter and it did not change for 30 mins without using any water!)

Has anyone had similar experience and how did you resolve it? I cannot end up paying over 1200 pounds on water bill per year...

[Salsaboy]

Have you checked that the meter readings you have correspond to what Thames Water have put on the bill?

[Loz]

Was a reading taken when you moved in? Or have Thames Water been doing estimates for a few years and has just got around to doing a proper reading.

[JohnL]

it can go up fast these days - my 6 monthly bill is well over ?100 after 3 estimated bills

I worked out i owe another ?100

Thats for a small 2 bedroom flat and I'm single.

[mima08]

Do phone them and get them to explain exactly how the bill is calculated. I had a similar thing happen to me years ago and when I phoned the guys asked if I had a swimming pool. Living in a 5th floor flat, it was pretty obvious no... I kept arguing till they accepted their computers had gone wrong somewhere - and I did not owe them any more money. Good luck!