utility billing (Fort Lauderdale, Oakland: coupon, house, contractor)

[flAnnoyed]

I'm newly relocated to florida and am appalled by the high, excessive, punitive way residents are billed. To complain seems futile, yet this is stated so to do if there's a billing dispute/error. I saw a previous forum from back around 2010 and am curious to know if anyone has had any success in getting their bills lowered, or had their voices (collectively,individually) heard? I quite frankly am very upset by what I've read and am dealing with. City officials that make quite large salaries want a break (as story of bundt cake coupon issue that can be read online by typing in "city commissioner bundt cake", or $3.99 bundt cake coupon, or such). I don't want to name person but it is upsetting to consider those that have so much want additional perks verses those who have much less have to make do with extreme budgeting to make ends meet. I also don't like the idea that our homes we work so hard to obtain can be threatened with a lien for continuous late fees. Why can't one month's penalty be enough-or taken out of deposit. Non-use shouldn't keep racking up charges. Any other victims have anything to share?

[BrowardNole]

I agree, the costs are very high. What bothers me is that the costs are high and Fort Lauderdale wasn't even using the money to maintain their water and sewer pipes... They were taking the money and using it roads and employees rather than raise property taxes. Now they are doing hundreds of millions in debt to fix the problems, which will raise our rates even more. I think WM and Oakland are also part of the Fort Lauderdale system, so they'll be getting jacked up rates for yellow water as well

And there really isn't any recourse for the high rates. In my experience, individual bills can be disputed, but not the actual rates overall. A city contractor parked a truck on yard over my main line and next thing I know the mainline to my house was busted and my yard slowly flooding. Took a month for them to remove the excess charges, but still haven't gotten paid for the cost of replacing the line.