Is your bill higher than expected?

It’s important to note that our charges will change each year, as part of our annual price review, and this may result in an increase in your bill for the billing period starting 1 April. For more information on our charges please click here.

For help in understanding the different elements of your bill, visit our ‘Understanding my bill’ page.

If your bill covers a longer period than expected, this could be the reason that your bill is higher.

For example, if your last bill covers 90 days and your most recent bill covers 120 days, we expect your total bill value to increase by roughly a third, as the period it covers has increased by a third.

Your bill may be based on an estimated meter reading. If it is, you can take a meter reading at your site and compare it to the estimated reading on your bill. Please only take a meter reading at your site if it’s safe to do so.

If the two readings are significantly different, you can submit your actual meter reading to us online at business-stream.co.uk/meter-reading or on your My Business Stream account, and we’ll process this. If something doesn’t look right, we’ll let you know and generate a new bill.

If your bill is based on an ‘actual’ meter reading, one which isn’t estimated, then this will be based on the actual water consumption recorded at your site. The more actual meter readings we have, the more accurate your bills will be.

If you have been billed based on an ‘actual’ meter reading, please continue to follow the steps on this page to identify alternative possible reasons for your higher-than-expected consumption.

Some examples of things that could have changed at your site are listed below.

• Have you employed more people?

• Have you upgraded your facilities?

• Have you changed a physical business process that uses water?

• Is your increased water consumption due to seasonal usage for example, watering the fields during summer or increased production at peak times?

• Have you made a change to your operating hours?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, this could have increased how much water you’ve used across the period you have been billed for.

If there have recently been changes to the way your premises is set up or the premises’ surrounding you, it could be possible that the supply pipework has not been amended accordingly.

• Has there been a change in ownership of the neighboring premises’ to your business?
• Is your business in a shared building for example, is there a flat or shop above your site?
• Has the set-up of your premises recently changed for example, has the premises been split into multiple units?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, and you think you might be using a shared supply, you can test this by turning off all the appliances in your premises, then try running a tap in your neighbour’s premises to check if your meter dials record water consumption.

If the meter records consumption, this could suggest that you are sharing a water supply and may explain the unexpected increase in your bill. We can raise a request to your water wholesaler to visit your site and confirm this. Please get in touch with one of our friendly advisers on 0330 123 2000 who will be happy to help.

It’s important to check for leaks regularly. Leaks waste money by wasting water, but they can also cause serious damage to your premises over time.

Use our step-by-step guide to identify a potential leak, it’s location and what to do next.