Water bills, meter readings and leaks
Who supplies my water? It depends on who built your home:
- Avant and Countryside homes — IWNL (Independent Water Networks Ltd)
- Evans homes — Last Mile Water
Unlike gas and electricity, you cannot switch water supplier, so it’s worth getting your billing right with the one you have.
Where is my water meter?#
Under the small grate on the pavement in front of your house (not the larger one). The lid lifts with a flat screwdriver levering around each side in turn. There’s a foam plug underneath to remove.
The chamber is often muddy or waterlogged and the dials are hard to read down there, so photograph the meter and zoom in on the picture rather than trying to read it in situ.
Submit meter readings monthly#
IWNL and Last Mile Water only officially read meters twice a year and estimate your bills in between. Estimated bills have caught residents out badly — monthly payments of £80–£125 before a real reading brought them down. Around £60 a month is typical for two adults, and a family of four uses roughly 12 cubic metres a month.
Submitting a reading regenerates your bill, so send one every month via your supplier’s website or app to keep bills accurate and avoid a large catch-up bill or an inflated direct debit.
A refund doesn’t fix your direct debit. Residents have been refunded a few hundred pounds of overpayment and then carried on paying the same inflated monthly amount, because the refund and the direct debit are handled separately. If you get money back, ask specifically for your monthly payment to be recalculated against your actual usage.
Automating readings: Most Avant properties (and at least some Countryside) seem to use Diehl IZAR meters. These broadcast their readings over short-range radio every few seconds, so a small receiver sitting in the house can log the readings without anyone lifting the chamber lid. A resident has published example configs and notes if you fancy building one. It’s a hobby project rather than a supported product - and it doesn’t replace sending readings to your supplier.
At the moment this is only confirmed to work with Diehl IZAR meters. Some Avant properties are known to use Sensus water meters, which are encrypted. It is believed Evans homes use Arad meters which use a different technology.
WaterSure — a cap on your bill for larger families#
If someone in your household receives Child Benefit for three or more children under 19, you can apply for the WaterSure scheme, which caps your annual bill — regardless of income. Ask your water supplier for the application form.
Think you have a leak?#
Turn off the internal stop tap (usually under the kitchen sink), then check the meter. If it is still counting up, there’s a leak between the meter and the house. On a new build, a leak inside your property boundary is the developer’s responsibility — report it to their customer care team.
Supply problems#
IWNL publish outages and incidents at iwnl.co.uk/live-incidents.