Has anyone experience of the fallability of water meters. Our use seems to have been high, yet only two in a small house. Not that many visitors and baths are rare. Checks show no leaks, so now checking useage weekly. Also plastic bottles filled with sand in the two cisterns to save more. May be linked to the estimation (as it is in UK) where meter is read only annually. Though we are here full time, some of the estimates were when it was a maison secondaire, each at 5 cu/m

Are you in a house by its self detached away from others or have neighbours next door? Check the serial number of the water meter against the bill. You can also fill exact amount containers to confirm the meter is running right. Get a 10 ltr jerry can that is marked and see how the meter changes. If you shut it off for a couple of days see if your neighbours complain they have no water Its not uncommon to find one meter serving two houses, After previous owners have renovated and moved on, The syndicates don't mention it because its money in the bank.

hi, average water consumption is estimated at 3 cubic metres per person per month including all washing, machines and cooking. Water in my village is less than 1 euro the cubic metre. How much is everybody else paying?

Solid advice. Hadn't thought of checking with known container size. Meter is in neighbour's garden, but there are two, theirs and ours. Will check serial number though as back up.

Average use note also helpful. Thanks again.

Don't know who your provider is, but the "Lyonnais des Eaux" offers a quite new service for 1.49 euros per month called (very originally!) Service Libert'Eau. We have just signed up and the installer is coming tomorrow between (wait for it) 13.03 and 15.03 (precisely to the minute??)

Basically this service consists of a rented (at the above monthly rate) transmitter attached to the meter.
The guy arrives with a small handset - sends a signal to the transmitter which reads the meter and retransmits the values to the handset where they are stored before being later downloaded to your account.

The advantage is that the meter reader himself can do this from well outside your property boundary and each transmitter/meter is auto-coded to your personal water account so it's a one-to-one transaction with no error margin.

No experience of it yet (anyone else tried it?) but they tell us it is practically infallible! It also automatically averages out your consumption and can recognise whether there are "blips" signifying water leaks, etc., in which case the company will investigate.

Not sure our part of Vendee is up to that. They do use an electronic tool, but they have to take cover off meter underground and do the pointy thing. Worth knowing though. We are planning to set up standing order to soften the sting.

I wouldn't pay for a new meter on a monthly basis, Its the same old con like their insurance that doesn't cover that much. Clever ways of extracting money from people, because in a couple of years we will all get those meters for free. Because it saves them lifting covers to read the meter.

It's not a new meter, just an accessory to the old one.
The alternative is to have transferred (at one's own cost!!!)
the "underground" meter inside the property boundary to an
external mounted meter such as one sees on new and some
renovated properties. Starting at minimum 2000 euros in our
case (the current meter is only 2 meters inside our external wall!),
we opted for the lesser evil! At 17.88 per annum it would take
nearly 112 years to pay off the 2000 euro alternative!

When we questioned the "min 2000 cost" it was explained that
- a wall section would have to be bulldozed out first
- the debris would have to be removed to a special dump
- the existing pipe and meter would have to be dug up
- a replacement pipe would have to be inserted and covered
- the wall section would have to be rebuilt and recrepied
- a new meter box would have to be installed on the exterior wall
- the pipe would have to be reconnected to the box and from the
box to the street water main.

all the above could take from 2 to 4 days during which time our
water supply would be cut off.

Great - and you pay that much for the "privilege".
Note also the guy was "negotiating" with my wife, who is bretonne
and a tough lady to put one over on, especially in France!!

All work the Syndicate du Eau quote for starts at 2000 euros They don't get in their vans let alone get the tools out for anything less. Being like that digging holes is a technically challenging job. Most of the money goes to the man that stands by the hole watching smoking a cigarette. Pays for his health care.

Like the UK before Maggie!!
That's what Sarko is supposed to change in France..
he's having a rough time!