Background: Sold my house in Lancaster in June, paid my last quarterly water bill in May (Feb-April service) for $55. My bills were always $40-60 every 3 months, no kids/no pool/no hoses to the neighbors house/etc…just my wife and I.
So yesterday I receive my final bill (May-mid June) for $452! I call and talk to this cheerful customer service rep and she says oh well you must have had a leak somewhere. Get transferred to the manager on staff and she says that I must have had a toilet leaking between that time or something. A leaky toilet that I didn’t hear and it leaked over $400 in like 40 days…
Basically she told me either I pay the bill or its going straight to collections and they will contact the credit bureau. Not looking to fuck my 800+ credit score. Already contacted my lawyer and he is out of the office until Monday.
So looking to see if anyone “knows anyone” or have gone through something like this and disputed with success. Or do I just say fuck it and pay it…
Something seems very wrong. My quarterly water bill is around what you pay and it only went up about $50 the quarter I filled my swimming pool. 10000+ gallons, two hoses running full blast for days. That would have to be one hell of a leak to go up $400.
Were yours estimated for a long ass time and then they took an actual reading to shut you off? Maybe you were going over all along and never knew it? Also call the current owners and ask what the meter is at and see if that lines up with the final reading they took. Maybe they transposed numbers or something.
OR, its a long shot, but maybe they let the people do their own reading when they started service. If they were shady, they could read it super high to fuck you and get free water for a long time.
Already called new owners and confirmed, last actual was ~8 months ago. No way that it is that much under for each estimated bill to add up to $450 bill. Nothing changed…no roomates, wasn’t taking 40hr showers.
lol, thought that right away…but the water company went out a week after I called in my final reading so they could do a reading of their own. Both of our readings (mine and water co.) were very close in line…so no shadiness on new owner’s side…just don’t understand.
I know its not a ton of money, more the principle. They had no real answer to give me, all she could say was “it must have been a leak or something”…dumb bitch.
If you just let the water company under-estimate the bill for quite a while, then you finally get an actual reading, it could be hundreds of dollars more.
I always mail back that stupid card that they send every quarter.
We pay about 40-45 dollars per quarter for a two family home.
We had a similar issue when we bought our house. There was no heating system in the house for over 5 years, at all. Only gas used was for a small hot water tank, which we turned off for 6 months. We pretty much had a $0 bill every month for 6 months. We installed a new high efficiency boiler and the same month we got a gas bill for $800.
We called and tried to fight it and they told us the same shit about shutting it off and sending us to collections…so we paid it. And yet they credited it to our account and now we haven’t had to pay anything since January…obviously a screw up at there end by charging us that much in the first place.
It’s just them trying to cover up their own fuck-up somewhere else. Tell them they’ll be hearing from your lawyer if they don’t straighten this shit out.
I don’t remember off hand, something crazy like 100k gallons or something. Just waiting for my lawyer to get back in town and see what he says, guessing I’m kinda stuck paying it…
Anyway you live and you learn I guess, into brand new house now (with no fucking leaks…lol) will post some pics up later.
No f’ing way a leak would cost that much. I planted grass earlier this summer and watered it all day everyday with 2 hoses and my bill was like $100. If you had a leak that big you would hear it or your yard would be a swamp.
Utility bills aren’t magic. CALCULATE how much your bill should be, then go to the town clerk’s office with your calculations and show them why they are wrong. That will get you a lot farther than “It seems too high to me, make it lower.” Or even “I paid my lawyer to tell you that it seems too high, make it lower.”
The other possible outcome of this is that you’ll calculate that the bill is right, in which case you either had one hell of a leak or your meter is out of calibration. In which case, good luck.
Having the same problem with my bill as well. Last one was $250 and the one before that was $150. Thought it could be the ac at first but now it has to be something else.
