How much do you pay for water

My house in england has recently been converted from a fixed rate water bill (used to be about £400 per year) to a metered supply. I've just received my first metered bill from Thames Water. it was for 24m³ and came to £75.21 That's £40.56 for the water and the rest in fixed charges.
That makes my UK water costs £1.69 per m³ [1]
In spain my water meter hasn't worked since before I bought the house, 5 years ago. As a consequence the water company charge me the standard rate for broken meters which is somewhere around 30€ a year.
For people in spain who pay for their water by the m³ - what are you being charged? My impression is that spanish water is cheaper than english water, even though it's (apparently) more scarce.

[1] I'm actually being charged twice: £1.16/m³ to supply water and £0,53/m³ for them to take it away again

Crikey, did you have to make it so complicated (metres cubed etc.)?? We used to pay around £330 a year for water rates in UK (5 years ago), but now pay on average 28-30€ per quarter for water, bins and lights (I think that's what the last one is on the bill!). I know that water meters are far, far cheaper in UK if there is only 2 of you (or 1) living there. Example is mum before she moved here 6 years ago, her water rates were nearly £450+ a year (£45 per month), water meter she paid around £19 a month - big difference.

I have always paid very little for my water in Spain, then they fitted new water meters last summer and was told the cost would go up.
And boy have they! My bills are now around 4.84€ for 3 months. Used to only pay that for 6!
Can't remember what it was in the UK - only that it was a lot more.

Dont start me! South West Water. Google it.

My first water bill here (7 years ago) was 23 € fantastic I thought having just moved from Cornwall - I know exactly what you mean Dave!

So each year I would nip into the town hall and hand over twenty something Euro until last Spring when Yolanda from the town hall gave me a courtesy call about my mounting debt. 436 € in un paid water bills! It turned out that I'd only been paying for the standing charge and the policeman hadn't checked my water meter in six years, I don't even have a pool! I actually calculated the whole bill at just over 600 € (100 per year) but the town hall were reluctant to take the additional money at that time but I expect they'll save it until the autumn for me.

Be warned and check that you're paying for usage and not just the standing order.

We had a water meter installed when we bought our cave home - the previous owner was running a pipe from his home to the cave home so not a separate supply. After the first reading they never came out to read the meter again. We get a standing charge of around 26 euros 4 times a year (sometime they come two months running and then don't get one for 6 months). The 26 euros includes VAT and 11+ euros for rubbish collection. Should they ever come out and read the meter we will get a big bill as we do seem to use more water than your average Spanish family.

Just remembered that some friends locally had their cave renovated after we moved into ours. When connecting their water supply they were asked if they wanted a meter, they said no so one wasn't put in, they just get the same charge as us but, if ever checked, they cannot get a back-dated bill.

I know lots of people without meters or broken ones that they've reported to the town hall and they all pay around the 30 € mark for a years supply - Which if I dwelled on it would annoy me slightly but never mind, it certainly makes me conserve water!

Just looked at our last bill - it says we used 35 m³ and charged 9.31 euros for it, so I work that out at 0.266 per m³ before VAT added at 7%. They then add a set charge of 5 euros for sewage plus another set charge of 11.27 for rubbish collection (which, as you know, is done 6 days a week). The VAT is only charged on the water cost, not the rest.

Thank you for that info you've inspired me to have another word with the town hall because I'm sure there's been a mistake somewhere along the line - I think I'm paying for the whole of the valley! Thanks again.

Yup, thanks C-R-U, that was the info I was looking for. Since posing the question I did a little research and found other pople paying around 70¢ per m³ - so it sounds like you've got a bargain there!
p.s. it is potable, water not argicultural water, isn't it :-)

I have finally dug out my old water bill and I paid 1€ per m3 this is in the Benamaurel area.
I'd be really grateful if somebody could give me a comparison in this area so that I can either storm the town hall well informed or give up and shut up.
Thanks in advance.

Yes it is potable water and even better quality than we had in the UK. In the UK we had to filter the water - if we boiled unfiltered water for tea it came out all scummy and looked disgusting.
To Musketeera - we live in the Castillejar area. Perhaps the charge for water is similar to a car. I know when we moved into this area they charged less car "tax" each year than we paid on the coast so perhaps each Town Hall charges what they think is appropriate to maintain their water system.
Another thought is: a friend moved to Torrevieja 24 years ago, when it was still a small fishing village. The bills she had were very low (like ours) but after a few years she, along with everyone else in the area it seemed, got a very big, one-off bill, for work that was required to be done. Apparently they only charged what was required during the years with nothing put by for maintenance or new works so when that was necessary they just billed everyone for the money required. Hope that is not why our water bill seems so much lower than everyone else.

Ours is 6.75 e a year but it is agricultural water, for that price using bottled water for drinking is not a prob!

by musketeera on Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:17 pm

I have finally dug out my old water bill and I paid 1€ per m3 this is in the Benamaurel area.
I'd be really grateful if somebody could give me a comparison in this area so that I can either storm the town hall well informed or give up and shut up.
Thanks in advance.

Hi musketeera

We too had problems at the town hall and had many communications with Yolanda. We didn't receive a bill for a few years and when we did it was about 10 times the size of what we really use per year. We had actual meter reading during the last year and proved we are not heavy consumers ( we are only in the cave about 30 days per year) The outstanding bill was about 300 Euros and they eventually said to just forget it although we offered to pay the equivalent of what our recent annual usage charge is (about 30 euros)
david

Water in the Caniles area costs
From 0 to 30 qubic meters = 0.20 cents cents a qubic meter
From 30 to 60 qubic meters = 0.29 cents cents a qubic meter
From 60 ----------------------- 0.50 cents a qubic meter

JMporte Fijo 4.88 (What ever that miens)