Court Summons - no idea why or when or what to do

[wellguy]

Originally Posted by MattTx

While my issue did not involve court, I had to struggle with SAWS over excessive water use.

The water meter box located in the alley behind my yard was busted and leaking at a fast rate. I did not realize this until I got my water bill which was much higher than usual.

SAW's initial response was that they will come fix the meter leak but the cause of the much higher than normal charges was because of a leak around the house. (I had no leak around the house) Long story short.....getting them to adjust the bill was quite challenging.

They took a long time to fix the meter leak too...they just let it run water in the alley for 14 days after I reported the leak to their emergency line. Apparently they think it is ok to let a leak like this run for days but go attack those that break local watering laws. A lot of water was wasted over those 14 days!

Good luck and I hope you get the issue resolved.

SAWS is not in the business of wasting water. We cannot afford it since there will be fines to pay by the EAA, possible fines by the TCEQ. I can sit here and say with all certainty that the leak was assessed and prioritized. The usual turn around time for a meter leak is 5-7 days. Yes SAWS is a Large Utility but we have to remember that not all 1600 Employees are in the Field. No one can phathom the number of Meter Leaks / Water Main Breaks SAWS Experiences on a daily basis. They are a year round problem. We had counless breaks this past Summer and with all the rain to date they are still occuring. The soils in San Antonio are not forgiving. Besides the Water Main Breaks there are Sewer Main Breaks that the Crews have to deal with. Speaking of the Folks in SAWS Distribution and Collection my Hat is off to them ( it always has been) since they are the true backbone of the company. They work 24 /7 in all weather coditions knee / waist deep in water and sewer. Without them we wouldn't be able to turn our faucet and have quality water flowing out. Worse yet we wouldn't be able to flush our waste down the toilet.

A couple of weeks ago I came home and found a notice on our front gate that said we had a leak. My hat is off to the Meter Reader who found our box full of water and reported it to SAWS Investigations, hence the card. Without that I would not have even suspected a leak since it was contained in the meter box. As we all know SAWS will not repair a leak on our side of the meter. Ours was just inches from the oulet of the meter and repairing it was at my cost and I will have to pay for the water wasted during the leak. I pay just like every other Customer. But with that said SAWS is GREAT about helping out the Customer when they experience a leak and the high water bill that follows. All one has to do is submit sales tickets / plumber's invoices and you will receive a credit but only up to a cetain amount. Something is always better than nothing.

[TexasRedneck]

ummm....actually, Wellguy - if you can show SAWS that you had a leak and repaired it, there IS relief. At very least they'll adjust your sewer charges, since they know the water didn't go there. Often, they'll even work w/you on the wasted water as well, as long as you were proactive in addressing and repairing the leak.

[helendha]

I wanted to update this thread as I know there was one other lady on here in the same situation as me (notice arrived in deployed husband's absense) and I thought it might help:

I sent off a letter from hubby's boss, and a copy of his orders, and a very polite letter last week asking for a new court date after he's scheduled to be home. I got a response today stating a Deferred Disposition (Probation) will be granted if we pay a $70 supervisory fee and are not convicted of a similar offense within 90 days.

They've said we have until a date in August (which is after his return) by which to respond. I'll just go ahead and mail the check right away, though.

Hope this helps anyone else in a similar situation - one less stress to worry about whilst he's gone

[TexasRedneck]

Personally....I'd fight it. It'd be a cold day in h*** before they'd get ANY kind of money from me until I saw some kind of documentation that it was MY property involved. As a co-owner of the home, you have EVERY right to be there and defend yourself against the "charges" - and I'd do just that. It's ludicrous that they'd wait THIS long before sending out a violation notice!

[WilGar]

Originally Posted by helendha

I wanted to update this thread as I know there was one other lady on here in the same situation as me (notice arrived in deployed husband's absense) and I thought it might help:

I sent off a letter from hubby's boss, and a copy of his orders, and a very polite letter last week asking for a new court date after he's scheduled to be home. I got a response today stating a Deferred Disposition (Probation) will be granted if we pay a $70 supervisory fee and are not convicted of a similar offense within 90 days.

They've said we have until a date in August (which is after his return) by which to respond. I'll just go ahead and mail the check right away, though.

Hope this helps anyone else in a similar situation - one less stress to worry about whilst he's gone

$ 70 SUPERVISORY FEE? What kind of bull is this?

You should be granted a future court date , period. How can you get deferred disposition if you have not been to court and convicted of an offense?

Looks to me a scam to go after the deployed military spouse.

[helendha]

A part of me agrees with you - we're supposed to agree that we won't be convicted of a similar offence for 90 days - we never did find out what the offence was so I guess we have to hope we don't do whatever-it-was again

But, for those who haven't been in a situation with a deployed spouse, 2 small kids who cry for their Daddy every day, a demanding full-time job of your own, and 2 close members of family on their death-beds on the other side of the world: let me just tell you it's very, very, very stressful.

Right now, under these circumstances, it is not worth my time (I would lose more than $70 by taking time off work to attend the hearing plus I'm told the court fine and fees would be more than $70) or my stress levels to pursue this further. Even if I attended, how in the world can I defend myself against something they say I did perhaps 8 months ago? It would be my word agains the officer's and I doubt they would take mine.

[TexasRedneck]

Ah - yeah, you're right - didn't realize you were working. But I tell you what - if you haven't sent the money yet, call your councilman/woman, and raise holy hobb w/'em. Point out how totally rediculous it is to get a summons for something that happended 8 months ago, and how you couldn't get a continuance when hubby is deployed. AAMOF, I *think* they are REQUIRED to give a continuance in instances where someone is deployed. Stuff like this is what council members LOVE to flex their muscles on - so let 'em.

If not, yeah - I don't blame ya, sometimes there's simply bigger fish to fry. THANK YOU for your husbands service......

[loves2read]

the fact that you have a spouse on ACTIVE duty, deployed--should get you some slack--
I know that in SA area there are probably many people in your situation but I don't care...
the SAWS is apparently used to throwing muscle around and having people say "whoa--I confess"...

call your council rep and sic them on the SAWS people
make a visit to a city council meeting and send your story to the newspaper--surely there is someone at a local paper that does human interest stories like this...

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by wellguy

SAWS is not in the business of wasting water. We cannot afford it since there will be fines to pay by the EAA, possible fines by the TCEQ. I can sit here and say with all certainty that the leak was assessed and prioritized. The usual turn around time for a meter leak is 5-7 days. Yes SAWS is a Large Utility but we have to remember that not all 1600 Employees are in the Field. No one can phathom the number of Meter Leaks / Water Main Breaks SAWS Experiences on a daily basis. They are a year round problem. We had counless breaks this past Summer and with all the rain to date they are still occuring. The soils in San Antonio are not forgiving. Besides the Water Main Breaks there are Sewer Main Breaks that the Crews have to deal with. Speaking of the Folks in SAWS Distribution and Collection my Hat is off to them ( it always has been) since they are the true backbone of the company. They work 24 /7 in all weather coditions knee / waist deep in water and sewer. Without them we wouldn't be able to turn our faucet and have quality water flowing out. Worse yet we wouldn't be able to flush our waste down the toilet.

A couple of weeks ago I came home and found a notice on our front gate that said we had a leak. My hat is off to the Meter Reader who found our box full of water and reported it to SAWS Investigations, hence the card. Without that I would not have even suspected a leak since it was contained in the meter box. As we all know SAWS will not repair a leak on our side of the meter. Ours was just inches from the oulet of the meter and repairing it was at my cost and I will have to pay for the water wasted during the leak. I pay just like every other Customer. But with that said SAWS is GREAT about helping out the Customer when they experience a leak and the high water bill that follows. All one has to do is submit sales tickets / plumber's invoices and you will receive a credit but only up to a cetain amount. Something is always better than nothing.

Wellguy: The leak I had was from my meter box as well and it was flowing down the alley at a steady rate. I live in an older neighborhood where these meter boxes are covered by grass and dirt.

SAWS did fix the leak, I just wish they could have done it sooner because I felt bad about all that water loss before it was repaired.