Water and wastewater charges, am i paying too much , (hope this is in the right section)

[cyberknight]

FIL just got a big refund as he was overpaying as the water company had fitted a meter outside the house unbeknown to him as he was paying based on rateable value of the house .
Im lucky i live in a low rate house and do not have a meter as i have 2 teens who sometimes have a bath an a shower each every day .

 

[Dave7]

@Pat "5mph"

UPDATE.
Apparently our charges are set by United Utilies.
They base the charges on council tax Bands ie house values.
Those values are based on 1991 valuations**
In our Close the 1st 5 houses are ex RAF officers houses. The next group of houses are newer and smaller.
Ours is Band C
The newer ones,are Band B (B is lower value than C).

I agree that although older our 5 houses will generally be higher value than the rest.
A Martin Lewis forum says I can appeal but am very unlikely to be successful.

 

[presta]

A Martin Lewis forum says I can appeal but am very unlikely to be successful.

Appeal what, the water bill or the tax band?

I appealed my Council Tax band when it was first rated in 1991, and got it reduced from D to C. Many years later an old lady two doors up the road mentioned council tax one day, and when I told her, she got hers reduced too. They were only ever valued on a drive-by, but I hit the District Valuer with his own data, so that he couldn't very well argue with it. I deliberately biased my calculation in his favour so as not to look greedy, but if I'd known it was going to be so easy I might have biased it the other way, and tried for band B instead.

 

[Electric_Andy]

we pay £83/month and that's South West water. We were guestimated at the lower tier, £53, when we moved in. then they said we were using more so put it up. when I asked them how many units we were using, they couldn't even tell us. That says a lot