$50 water bill for a single bedroom apartment - What's happening? (Austin: apartments, living in)

[SarcasmoBlaster]

So, I've been living in Austin for about 8 years now, all in apartments. Everywhere I've been has used allocated billing, which is fine. Typically my water bill will be about $35 dollars a month. That is until 3 months ago. Since then, there's been a sharp increase. They are now about $50 per month. So, what's happening here? Have any other Austinites who live in apartments experienced a similar sharp increase?

For reference, the increased happened in my June bill. The apartment is about 740 sqft.

[iamwayne]

"Allocated" just because you're not using more water to drive up the bill doesn't mean someone else in your complex isn't, and vice versa.

If you're not on allocation now and paying it yourself, maybe in the old apartments your neighbors were paying extra for your usage so you don't pay as much.

[SarcasmoBlaster]

No, I am aware of how allocated billing works, and it's still being allocated now.

Even with allocated billing though, a 40% increase seems like a lot, no?

EDIT: Utility billing company is AUM, if that helps.

[FalconheadWest]

The price of water has gone up all over Austin. Why would it be different in an apartment?

[SarcasmoBlaster]

When did these price increases go into effect? Was it three months ago? If not something else is going on. It's mostly sewage charges. Old sewage charge was about $13 a month. New sewage charge is about $24 a month. All of this increase happened from May to June. So did city of Austin increase wastewater charges during that time?

[texxas]

Some places do allocation differently... The water pressure at my place is crazy high (I think). Our water bill is about $35 a month. To me that seemed really cheap. I think that includes trash and recycling too. Good think it's just $15. If I were you I wouldn't worry about it.

[JT-3]

Flush the toilet every other time.

Maybe check with neighbors if they've experienced an increase as well?

[Gorfml]

Our last water bill was $701... Consider yourself lucky...

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by SarcasmoBlaster

When did these price increases go into effect? Was it three months ago? If not something else is going on. It's mostly sewage charges. Old sewage charge was about $13 a month. New sewage charge is about $24 a month. All of this increase happened from May to June. So did city of Austin increase wastewater charges during that time?

wastewater gets reset once a year. They measure in jan feb mar (or dec/jan/feb) so it wouldnt surprise me if the new amounts go into effect on a may bill (they say april, but a bill you get in may could be retroactive for the month of april).

Here is the faq for wastewater averaging

http://www.austintexas.gov/departmen...-averaging-faq

They stay the same for the rest of the year.

I too find it annoying when people dont make any effort to answer my question but post irrelevant things.

[camelian]

2 possible scenarios come to mind..
1. Maybe there was a pipe leak in someone's unit? Or someone had a leaky toilet?
2. Does community water get allocated into the bill too? They probably needed to run the sprinklers a lot more in the summer