Water Bill

Question 1 - which Region do you live in?

Question 2 - when were the meters read?

The 1 person/2 people confusion may have resulted from a base assumption that it was a one person household (perhaps it was previously a 1 person household) until the police control took place to confirm that it was 2 people. You only officially live there once the police control is completed.

Is the consumption based on what you have actually used or what your supplier thinks you might have used?
It is quite common with utility bills for the suppliers to charge you based on what happened 'last year' until there is an official reading of the meters. Last year, of course, you weren't there but they have nothing else to base an estimate on so it's a case of 'some you win and some you lose'.
If the bill is inaccurate it will be sorted out next time - if it's accurate you'll have to start showering together!
All you can do is keep a careful and regular check on your meters and be economical. 140m³ a year is around 3 times the usage in my home though we are very careful with all our utility usage.

We live in Wallonie and for an annual consumption in 2014 of 128,00 cubic metres we paid € 523,58. I don't have the 2015 bill to hand yet but it will have been a bit higher for a similar usage.

Water charges are fixed for each region and WSL is in the Brussels Capital region so the calculation would be different from ours, however the method of calculation should have been explained either on the bill itself or on an accompanying sheet and, as it is done by computer, it should be accurate. Your usage may have been estimated, rather than being calculated from actual readings, but from what you say it probably isn't far out.

Water is expensive here, and has become more expensive in recent years, and this is a deliberate attempt to encourage Belgians to be as economical in their usage as possible. Water is after all yet another scarce resource and I was rather surprised to learn that the Netherlands clearly encourage wastage by not charging enough.

Incidentally, before moving here, I paid much higher non-metered charges in the UK, albeit inclusive of sewage disposal.

Water companies seem to do what Kasseistamper has explained.. so I hope that amount refers to the previous owner and it gets corrected - and lowered - next time the meters are checked! Good luck with that!

And, since this thread is about water bills, I'll take the chance to try to get some help myself too, if you don't mind, Pegahmt87 :-)

We have just got a bill for 1200 EUR (!!!!), stating that consumption for this past year (Aug 2015 - Aug 2016) is about 250 m³ , while previous years it was around 50 something m³ (don't have the bill in front of me now).

We have been living there (Kortenberg) for 5 years now, we are 2 adults, and no new machines were added in the previous year. So we cannot understand how the consumption has increased so much..

Unless.. there is a leak? If so, would the insurance cover it? Or how should we proceed?

Such a high bill was completely unexpected, so some insight/help/ideas would be very much appreciated!

Thank you very much in advance, and Pegahmt87, once again, good luck with your bill!!

@hayra81
I've had this happen, too!
If you get the supplier to check the meter and it is faulty they will sort it out. If it isn't, they will charge you for making the check. (In our case it was not our fault.) An obvious thing to do is to confirm that the reading on which your bill is based is accurate and, on the basis of 'once bitten, twice shy', I now check ALL the meters regularly to avoid further unpleasant shocks.

@Kasseistamper , thanks for your quick reply!!

I hadn't thought of a faulty meter.. good point!
According to my boyfriend, he noted down the correct number from the meter - I asked him to double check in case he had copied it wrongly.. like.. adding a number or something..

But I'll tell him about the meter itself, in case that would be the cause.. Because we have certainly not used that much water.. Unless once again, there's a leak somewhere in the apartment? In which case I wouldn't know whose fault it is.. or if we'd be covered by the insurance...

Checking all meters regularly seems to be what I'll be doing now as well.. ¬¬

Thanks again!

@hayra81
To test for a leak, turn off all water in the house, making sure no machines are running in the house. Now look at your meter - there should be no movement. If the meter is turning, you have a leak.
Did you add a water softener this year? It consumes quite a bit of water, but certainly not 200m3.
Ask the water company to check it out. They might be helpful getting to the cause.

Try to limit your consumption to 60 m3 a year. Each m3 above 60 costs up to
7 € /m3. You can find the tariffs here :
http://www.hydrobru.be/nos-tarifs/tarifs-ordinaires-de-fourniture-et-das...