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My daughter lives in a very small apartment in Durham. Three months ago, she got a water bill for almost $300. She called the water company and they told her she should contact her landlord about a possible leak. They did a test and the landlord said there was a leak in the toilet and said he fixed the problem. She just got another bill that is again very high. Her landlord is making excuses and not willing to do anything. What can s he do at this point (besides move)? Any thoughts?
The high water bill she just received likely reflected the toilet leaking after her water meter was read for the last bill but before she got that bill and then the landlord fixed the leak in the toilet.
She may want to check the meter to be certain it is not running when there is no water running. Where I live, city workers will come out and confirm this.
She may be able to get the landlord to give her a break on the rent as it was his malfunctioning toilet, not her overuse of water that caused this. Good luck on that one, by the way, but you never know.
$300 in a month seems an awful lot for a leaking toilet. But if her water bills are that high, she may have no option but to move.
, dis
Water running all the time should be evident... even a small flow in most cases.
What would a typical water bill look like?
In my city... we had a doubling of sewer charges which are part of the water bill.
Several tenants called me about high bills... I asked them to look to see if they had used more or less water for the same period a year ago... the bill shows this... in every case it was about the same gallons per day.
If you don't use a single drop of water... the fixed charges part of the bill for two months will still be $70 and change...
One women was using only 35 gallons a day to save... the water usage part of her bill was only a few dollars... she did not understand about the fixed charges.
Perhaps customer service can set up a leak check to pin down the problem... might be worth a visit to the water company to ask a manager?
As suggested in the other thread (which I see was later removed, presumably because it was viewed as a duplicate posting) your daughter can also call the water company and ask them what the previous usage was for that apartment. Hope it works out in her favor.
Is she getting water from the city, or is there an intermediary that sub-meters the water for the complex? I've seen some exorbitant water "facility fees" from apartment complexes around here.
If she's getting her water straight from the city, then her bill should not be more than $60-$80 every other month. I'm paying $80 every cycle in the summer, and that includes a $5/month ($10/bill) yard waste container rental and a huge vegetable garden that gets watered an average of twice a week in the summer.
Call Durham One Call, ask if they can send a water worker to check for a leak (they'll show you where to find the meter and help you watch to see if it spins when there's no use).
Oh, and here's an important one:
There's also been some problems in years past with 'estimated readings' in Durham, you can always ask the city to audit the meter mid-cycle to check that the estimate is appropriate. Meter readers don't get to every meter each cycle, so they draw up a bill that mirrors last month's usage. Next cycle, the meter would get read, and the new bill will credit any over-payment from last month. I've known folks that got an estimated reading for $120 on one bill, and then the next bill was free and the second bill after that had $15 taken off of it because the estimated use was so high.
Water running all the time should be evident... even a small flow in most cases.
What would a typical water bill look like?
In my city... we had a doubling of sewer charges which are part of the water bill.
Several tenants called me about high bills... I asked them to look to see if they had used more or less water for the same period a year ago... the bill shows this... in every case it was about the same gallons per day.
In our municipality, they have a nice 13 month graph so it's easy to compare.
I agree that if they noticed the last bill was high, there was probably a week or two on the new bill before the leak was corrected due to the time it takes for the bills to be made out, sent, delivered, etc. Definitely check the meter. I do beleive that the Durham water dept will come out and check for you also.
There's also been some problems in years past with 'estimated readings' in Durham, you can always ask the city to audit the meter mid-cycle to check that the estimate is appropriate. Meter readers don't get to every meter each cycle, so they draw up a bill that mirrors last month's usage. Next cycle, the meter would get read, and the new bill will credit any over-payment from last month. I've known folks that got an estimated reading for $120 on one bill, and then the next bill was free and the second bill after that had $15 taken off of it because the estimated use was so high.
Excellent point on estimated utility bills...
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