@Lizzie27 We have the same though a slightly newer house. You phone and tell them. You may have to photo or show/prove your manhole drains only come from the house. Not connected to your roof drains. But I think they know. Our sewerage company seemed to know our estate has only main house drains for waste from bath, sinks, toilets. And that the garage and house gutters are not connected. You may/should be able to tell by lifting your manhole covers. Run taps and flush toilets. Observe. Pour water down.... your down pipes on house and garage roof or where it goes into the ground at the bottom, if you can.
But they/ours charge until you ask or point it out. Our water is supplied by a separate company.
@Lizzie27 we also had photos because we replaced one of the front soakaways about 5 years ago and had drain work done out back when we moved in. I think Ruby’s right though. They almost certainly know the set up in our road. Many of the houses have no mains drains at all.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
@Lizzie27, one good indicator would be an absence of gully pots (often referred to as grids) which the rainwater downpipes and hard surface runoff discharge into. on second thoughts, even if present the gully might run to a soakaway. Hmm, as you were...
Thanks guys, 3 of our downpipes just disappear into a small grid /ceramic gully(?) in the paving, the fourth just into the soil in a sloping bed, so who knows? I'll investigate in the New Year - it will be something to do while we're all locked down again.
All our rain gutters empty into soakaways and we get a discount on our sewerage rates to compensate for that. I think you can just notify your water supplier, they may ask for some evidence. We had a water meter installed about 10 years ago. I don’t think there was any charge to fit it? Before that, our water bills were based on our rateable value, which as we have a large house and garden, were pretty horrendous. Once we had the water meter fitted, our bills dropped to a fraction. There are only two of us here, but I do use the washing machine and dishwasher very frequently, it’s still saved us lots of money.
Does everyone in England have a water meter? I think Scotland dodged a bullet during Thatchers privatisation maelstrom. We managed to keep our water under public control.
This is something I thought about a few years ago when our meter was fitted
what they do is use the water meter to show total amount going into your house for charging purposes.The amount of water going to the sewers cant be measured so I contacted the water board to ask about this a few years ago to say some of my water goes on the garden and not down the drain and was told that they know this and what they do is do a percentage estimate of what water goes down the sewers and it was 10% of what water comes into the house.
Regarding using a meter on your hose pipe to work out what water goes onto the garden I cant see how they would take your word on the amount you put on the garden unless it was installed by the waterboard.
The water board suggest you install a sub meter but needs to be ftted by a registered Plumber then let the water board know
I have 3 water butts but even then there comes a time I have to use the mains supply for watering
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You phone and tell them.
You may have to photo or show/prove your manhole drains only come from the house. Not connected to your roof drains.
But I think they know. Our sewerage company seemed to know our estate has only main house drains for waste from bath, sinks, toilets. And that the garage and house gutters are not connected.
You may/should be able to tell by lifting your manhole covers. Run taps and flush toilets. Observe.
Pour water down.... your down pipes on house and garage roof or where it goes into the ground at the bottom, if you can.
But they/ours charge until you ask or point it out.
Our water is supplied by a separate company.
I think Ruby’s right though. They almost certainly know the set up in our road. Many of the houses have no mains drains at all.
one good indicator would be an absence of gully pots (often referred to as grids) which the rainwater downpipes and hard surface runoff discharge into.
on second thoughts, even if present the gully might run to a soakaway.
Hmm, as you were...
I think Scotland dodged a bullet during Thatchers privatisation maelstrom. We managed to keep our water under public control.
I have 3 water butts but even then there comes a time I have to use the mains supply for watering
Water palarva though
Keep safe
Jolly G