High Water Bill in Stone Oak (Spring, Canyon: new house, neighborhood, construction)

[sailorgirl2007]

I moved into my home (new construction) in mid-Dec of last year. In short, I've been battling Bexar Met over whehther or not they've been reading my meter correctly. They've charged us over $1,300 just from Dec to April. Does that seem a bit unusual? Can anyone tell me what they're average water bill is? My square footage is 3,107 and there are only 3 of us who live in the home. If anyone had a similar experience with Bexer Met please share. We really don't know what to do.

[SAnativegirl]

That's incredible! You're joking right?
Mine is only about 35. a mo.
It jumped to 42 when I watered I
few times last mo. But its a sm home-
1300 sq ft-2 of us.
I have heard of new home owners
using alot with new yards. oh and
its not bexar met- SAWS

[cheermomof4girls]

I am in a neighborhood next to Stone Oak, Canyon Springs. Our house is 3312sq ft. We have 3.5 baths and are a family of 6. We got our first water bill and it was about $45. Keep in mind, we have dirt in our back yard right now, so we don't have front and back to water. Bexar Met is also our water co.

[goodmanm]

Are you being billed for service provided prior to moving in?

Do you have a sprinkler system? If so, check for leaks.

[Chaka]

My water bill with SAWS is consistently under $30/month. Family of 3, including a baby in cloth diapers (a few extra wash loads/week) who also likes to pretend the bathtub is her personal swimming pool. It'll probably be a bit more this month because I planted some grass plugs and have been watering much more than usual..

The size of house shouldn't make a huge difference for water, the size of lawn may if you're watering a lot.

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by goodmanm

Do you have a sprinkler system? If so, check for leaks.

Check for leaks even if you don't have a sprinkler system. I've had two separate leaks at my water meter and one on the service line coming in to my house.

It does take a few hundred dollars worth of water to get a lawn established.

[SAnativegirl]

I've had a couple leaks in the past, too. Send them a copy of bill from the plumber and they will give you some discount on your water bill.

[Drzy]

If you have a sprinkler system, that's probably your culprit. Lots and lots of people overwater their lawns. I speak from experience... my first bill was $200+, and a friend's was $400+.

My wife's mom works for one of the suburb's governments and sees it all the time -- people calling in and saying their water bills can't be right because they're too high, and almost every time it's because their sprinklers are running too long. She's seen bills >$1,000 for a single month.

[StanStelle]

Originally Posted by sailorgirl2007

I moved into my home (new construction) in mid-Dec of last year. In short, I've been battling Bexar Met over whehther or not they've been reading my meter correctly. They've charged us over $1,300 just from Dec to April. Does that seem a bit unusual? Can anyone tell me what they're average water bill is? My square footage is 3,107 and there are only 3 of us who live in the home. If anyone had a similar experience with Bexer Met please share. We really don't know what to do.

I'm in Stone Oak with a larger home than yours and front and back automated sprinklers. My bill for March was $85, but that included a $35 System Improvement Fee. I have no idea what that fee is for so I'll have to give them a call. I programmed my sprinklers to turn on once a week during March so unless you have a leak or your sprinklers have gone awry, it shouldn't be that much.

[rd2007]

If it's a brand new house, make sure you get them to look up when someone actually went out there to read the meter and that should be the date you had the service "turned on". It sounds like someone was using your water to maybe fill up a pool or something prior to you moving in and there's no way I would pay for that. The same thing happened to me with my electricity in the first house I was in here. My first bill was almost $600 because they charged me for all of the electricity that was used while the house was vacant.
Unfortunately you're probably going to get VERY frustrated with the situation though. I tried and tried and tried to explain to "customer service" reps that I didn't use all that electricity, but I could never find anyone bright enough to actually comprehend the situation.. go figure