Do you remember when we had that water meter fitted in May last year?

The main reason was a financial one - We've got a short-flush toilet, a shower and we keep our water usage low and yet last year's bill, from South East Water, for April 1st 2010 - March 31st 2011, was still a whopping £320. Considering the house is single occupancy for 44 weeks of the year that's a lot of money to splash out on H2O. I figured that by fitting a water meter the water bill would go down.

March 15th 2011 - The water bill comes through the door and the cost for the forthcoming year is - £350! So I get a meter fitted and my bill goes UP nearly 10%. I've had a water meter for nearly a year and, looking at the details of the bill, they're still charging me based upon the Rateable Value of my house. It's only a 3-bed semi but I'm being charged the same amount as my next-door neighbour and there are 4 people living at their property (4x as many showers, toilet flushes, washing machine loads etc).

I called South East Water to tell them they were taking the piss (and the rain water, the bath water, the dish water etc.) and they immediately spotted that they were still charging me on "the RV". I asked why this was so and they stuttered a bit to explain but blamed it on a systems failure between the installation engineer and the backend system at the water company.

South East Water have said that they will send me a revised bill, so watch out for an update - I've gone green and I'm trying to save money so let's hope this works out to our advantage rather than for the shareholders of the utility company.

SO - If you've just got your water bill and you've had a water meter installed make sure you're not being charged at the Rateable Value and inform your water company immediately. We're trying to go green, use less water and drive our costs down, so good luck people!