Where Is the Water Meter Located?

Start outside: the cover in the pavement or front garden

Water companies prefer to fit meters outside, where they can be read without coming in. Thames Water says it always aims to fit meters outside and only goes indoors where that is not possible. So the first place to look is the strip of pavement directly in front of your property, then the driveway and the front garden close to the boundary.

You are looking for a small cover, often around the size of a paperback, in black plastic or metal. Some are marked Water Meter or simply W. The meter normally shares the chamber with the outside stop tap, because both sit on the pipe where it leaves the water company’s network and enters your property.

On a terraced street you may find a row of identical covers, and the one nearest your gate is not always yours. Older streets were plumbed with shared runs and meters added later, so covers sometimes sit in front of a neighbour’s house. The only reliable test is the serial number, covered below.

No cover outside? Check these places indoors

Where there was no room outside, or the pipe was hard to reach, the meter will be indoors, usually on the incoming cold main close to where it comes up through the floor. Look in this order.

• Under the kitchen sink, beside or just before the inside stopcock
• Under the stairs, or in the cupboard where the incoming pipe rises
• In a basement or cellar, where older London houses often bring the main in
• In an attached garage or utility room
• Behind a kick-board panel under kitchen units, when the pipe rises there

Do not cut into boxing or panels to hunt for a meter. If it is not visible in any of these places, ask the water company where it was fitted.

Where the meter is in a flat

Flats vary more than houses. In a converted house, each flat may have its own meter in a chamber outside, sometimes several covers side by side in the front garden. In purpose-built blocks, meters are often grouped in a communal cupboard on each landing, in a ground-floor plant or meter room, or in the riser cupboard that carries the pipes up the building.

Some blocks have a single bulk meter for the whole building, with the cost shared through the service charge, in which case there may be no individual meter for your flat at all. Your managing agent or freeholder will know how the building is supplied. Our guide to the stopcock in a flat helps with the same hunt for the valve that controls your supply.

Make sure it is your meter

Every meter carries a serial number, printed or stamped on the body or the face. Your water bill shows the serial number of the meter you are billed for. Match the two before you take a reading, report a leak or rely on it for a leak test. On a street of identical covers, reading a neighbour’s meter by mistake is an easy error to make.

If the serial number has worn off, ask someone inside to run the kitchen cold tap fully while you watch the meter. On a dial meter the small star or cog-shaped flow indicator should start spinning at once; on a digital meter watch for the flow symbol or the last digit to move. Either should stop when the tap is turned off. Once you have found it, our guide to reading a water meter explains which digits count.

If you still cannot find it, the water company holds a record of where each meter was installed and can tell you over the phone. Thames Water says customers in London get a smart meter that sends regular readings, so you may never need to open the cover for billing.

Opening the chamber, and what the stop tap inside is for

Most covers lift with a flat screwdriver or a key in the slot. Wear gloves, keep your face back, and expect water, soil and spiders. If the chamber is full of water in dry weather, that is worth a closer look. A pit that keeps refilling may mean a leak on the meter, the stop tap or your supply pipe: see a water leak at the meter before you phone anyone.

The stop tap in the same chamber shuts off the whole property. It belongs to the water company, and older ones can be stiff or leak once disturbed, so use your inside stopcock first. If you ever need the outside one in an emergency, turn it gently clockwise with a proper stop tap key, never with pliers. If your inside stopcock will not turn at all, that is worth fixing before the day you need it: see stopcock repair.

Can you move a water meter?

If your meter is fitted inside the house or in your garden, Thames Water can usually move it, but only after a survey. The survey carries a fee, paid upfront, and the move is then quoted separately and paid before the work goes ahead. The old meter is replaced with a new one when it moves. Not every meter can be moved: the survey decides.

Do not move, remove or re-route a meter yourself or let anyone else do it without the water company’s agreement. It is their equipment, and pipework changes around it still need to meet the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999. If you are carrying out building work and the meter or stopcock is in the way, raise it with the water company early.

If the reason you are looking is water on the floor right now, close the stopcock first and then look for the meter. For water you cannot stop, book an emergency leak repair: you pay the £60 call-out and the repair price is agreed with you on site before any work starts.