Outrageous Water Bills (house, moving to, estimate)

[jsfranklin221]

I moved into my house in Canton in November 2010. My first water bill was as expected and for 4 months of time. My second water bill was for 2 months of time and was twice as much as my first bill ($200). I asked them to do another reading and was given a bill for $498 and the bill didn't make any sense. The total wasn't the sum of its parts.

Is anybody else dealing with similar problems? Any suggestions for fixing?

[remstone]

Originally Posted by jsfranklin221

I moved into my house in Canton in November 2010. My first water bill was as expected and for 4 months of time. My second water bill was for 2 months of time and was twice as much as my first bill ($200). I asked them to do another reading and was given a bill for $498 and the bill didn't make any sense. The total wasn't the sum of its parts.

Is anybody else dealing with similar problems? Any suggestions for fixing?

Your first bill was $190. This second one says you didn't pay the first, hence the balance and the "Delinquent Account" at the top. And maybe even a $7.50 late charge, I can't read what that is. So this bill is actually $307 on top of the $190 which makes $497. Unless you pay late and then it's $522.

The city meter readers often can't / don't read the meter (it may be blocked, covered, something) and estimate your usage. Then when they finally do read it your usage for the quarter may seem high or low and you get situations where "two months" is a lot more than "four months" of usage. This bill is showing two separate meter readings (or at least estimations) because the rate changes significantly. But the total is for 107 days and the math adds up.

Fixing? Assuming you actually paid the first you may just want to confirm with someone that it was received. And now just pay the new portion of $307. And maybe consider doing online payment in the future so you have an electronic record of a payment instead of just a check. As for fixing why water bills are so high in the first place, that's a long-term neglect kind of thing that we just now get to pay for.

[North Beach Person]

I didn't look at your attachment but an average household of 4 uses about 250-300 gallons/day. Obviously if you're washing your cars a lot or watering a lawn it will be more. If your usage is more than that you may have leaks (check your toilet, they're notorious for leaking without anyone noticing) in the system somewhere.

The meter may be bad, also. Is it a remote/scanner type of meter or does it have visible dials. You can shut all your water off and check to see if the dials are moving to check for leaks.


EDIT: the gallonage I quoted is a somewhat high number if you have low flow fixtures.