While this is a sticking plaster rather than a cure, you could ask to return to an unmetered supply based on rateable value. It would be more expensive than the correct metered usage but a lot less than you are paying now. Of course, it’s best to get to the root of the problem, as it sounds like you’ve been overpaying for years.
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We are a couple and our bill is £32 a month.
Our meter is smart?! And in January our daily average usage was 182 litres.
We have dishwasher used daily and shower every other day. Generally use washing machine 2-3 times a week. We wash hands ….a lot, plus usual daily uses, drinks, WC etc.
Anglian Water were fantastic when it came to our 2 leaks and the faulty meter. They suspended bills and re calculated usage once the leaks were fixed.
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You could buy a clamp on ultrasonic flow meter. It will indicate real time flow, but it should also give you cumulative flow.
Some are less than £200 on ebay and you can sell it after you’ve used it.
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This is unbelievable! I live alone and have my four kids coming in and out at weekends. My bills are £45 per month which I think is too much. Water companies have a bad rap at the moment. I really don’t know why bill has gone up over 25% per year as last year it was around £32 per month. Water usage hasn’t really changed.
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The shareholders want a chunk
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It appears that ofwat allow a large increase once every 5 years. My bill also went up about 25% in 2025, but increase should be dependent on inflation. Hopefully.
The thought occurred to me. No outside tap (apart from our own) but just remotely possible that there was a branch to the neighbouring semi. However did a test - our neighbour turned on all taps and no movement of the meter.
I wasn’t aware that this was possible but as a last resort then yes that’s what we’ll do. It’s a lot better than paying around double what everyone else seems to be. Yes it looks as if we’ve been over paying as far back as we can access our (on line) bills, and probably since we moved in 10 yrs ago. Just awaiting the billing record from Severn Trent. If the meter does prove to have been faulty then we’ll be due a considerable refund. Incidentally I was told they would be fitting a Smart meter in place of the old meter but the guy turned up today with a straight forward replacement conventional meter. When I queried this I couldn’t get anything very coherent out of him.
You are paying around £450 less than we are per 6 months! We are a couple too with similar habits to yours. This just doesn’t make sense.
I presume hifi isn’t water cooled?!
I don’t know what your leak test entailed, but with all taps off, I presume there isn’t any movement of the meter? Also I don’t know what the smallest units are on a water meter, but is it something small enough to be able to check yourself ? E.g. if you were to fill multiple buckets of capacity with water, see if the meter response is right.
With both water and electricity, you are free to ask a plumber or electrician to install your own water or power meter after the utility provider meter and do your own “double entry bookkeeping” as it were. There are off the shelf products for this.
But as @Skeptikal says, watch out for the sinkhole.
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Correct. Even with one tap running a very tiny amount (ie. barely a drip) the last digits on the meter start to clearly move.
As a test I filled a 2L container and the meter registered exactly 2L use. This is what makes me think, along with what I have been told by the engineer and what I have read, that the meter wasn’t faulty, ie. not over-reading. Still Severn Trent despite my observtions, insisted that the next step was to change the meter. This was done yesterday and was in fact a very simple 15 minute or so job. When I ‘phoned Severn Trent to arrange for them to take a reading off the new meter after the elapse of a suitable time (they said 2 weeks was sufficient) I expressed my ongoing concerns. The girl I spoke to (who to be fair was in the billing department and therefore not a technical person, and was very sympathetic and helpful) said that if the new meter didn’t resolve things then they would investigate further. She was not able to say what that might entail however, but assured me that “they will be able to do something”. We’ll see. In the meantime our payments have been suspended so the current bill remains unpaid.
What you want is known as an ‘assessed charge’ which is the term used for charges where fitting a meter isn’t possible. It’s based on an estimate of what you would pay if you had a meter.
Paying a charge that is allegedly based on the old water rates is a ploy used by the water industry to massively overcharge anyone who hasn’t asked to have a meter installed.
I had a similar problem. My water company in South East Kent has a guide usage for my property (shown on the bill). I was able to go to them and say why is my supply far exceeding the guide usage.
Secondly they advised turning off all the taps etc and checking to see if the water meter was still showing a flow of water.
In my case, I hadn’t long moved into the property and in setting up the billing the water company had switched my bill with a much larger house nextdoor.
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Interesting point, I wonder could the OP’s bill be related to a different property due to the meter number not been assigned correctly. How are these meters read - remotely?
I’ve investigated the possibility of returning to an unmetered supply and under Severn Trent’s Terms and Conditions it’s not possible for us. We don’t meet the required criteria. So if the new meter doesn’t resolve the issue, and frankly I don’t hold out much hope, then they will need to do something else to sort it. We can’t keep paying bills around twice as much as normal. I know we’re not using that much water, but how on earth do we prove that to Severn Trent? I suspect they will simply take the view that if the meter is reading correctly then that’s how much water we are using as in their view there is no other explanation. But there simply must be. No leak has already been established by us and them, so what could it possibly be?!!! Even they have admitted that our recorded usage in unusually high. To quote the guy who replaced our meter yesterday, “This meter has an unusually high reading on it - nobody uses that much water. You’ve got a leak somewhere”. This depite a ST engineer already having said categorically that we haven’t. When I pointed this out to him he said “Yes but the leak test doesn’t cover every possibility”???!!! So it seems they are saying that they have tested for a leak and established that their isn’t one. Yet there could still be one. This to me sounds like BS.
Checked and ruled out.
You said that they checked for leaks once. Leaks (or usage by others) can be intermittent so would need to be monitored over a period of time.
I hope none of the neighbors has a very hot attic.
It certainly points to the supply being interfered with after the meter.
I know it’s inconvenient but I think I’d not use any water for perhaps 24 hrs and check if the meter moves.
Something isn’t right. 
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