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So, I'm in Texas. Lived in a 3 bedroom apartment for over 3 years. We have new ownership as of December,which came along with a new water company. I received a water bill in February for a 2 week time period from Thanksgiving week for $150. My previous water bill was never higher than $60 for one month in this apartment. Water company found nothing wrong with the meter. Here is part of an email from the apt mgr's response:
"maintenance and he stated that they responded to a service request at the beginning of February that you entered for your toilet running continuously. When the service request was completed on 2/9 they had to replace the fill valve. The fill valve is the part of the toilet that fills the tank and the bowl. When it is not working properly your toilet bowl and tank will continuously fill with water, drain itself, and repeat that cycle. It does it slowly and gradually, but does worsen as the problem goes un-noticed. It is quite possible that this is the reason for the increase in your bill especially if this has been going on for two month’s un-noticed. The bad news is that this issue was not reported/corrected until February 9th and this latest billing cycle was through January 9th which means your next water bill will be just as high."
The next month's my water bill was $220, plus a $20 utility fee because it was so high. Apt mgr said this would be the last one (paid one month ago). I had an issue with what the mgr explained above, but said, whatever...I'll pay it & move on. I did tell her I was just concerned that it would keep happening & she assured me that it wouldn't. In the meantime, I signed a renewal lease, which begins on 5/7.
So my new water bill is $137, plus another utility fee. The service period started 2/14 - after the maintenance date she gave above when they changed the toilet valve. They also did a bucket test in the bathtub to make sure the meter was measuring correctly & they said it was.
My thing is, I do not want to water bills that high going forward. It seems like the issue won't be fixed - maybe because I've been in the apt so long..I don't know.
They refused to give me any credits for the bill. Is it possible for me to get out of my lease that starts 5/7 based on this issue? I'm not confident at all that the bill will go back down to normal. I haven't called the manager about the bill yet, and wanted to know what possibilities there might be or if I'm SOL. The new lease is for 14 months. I've been happy at that place until now and my kids don't have to change schools, etc is why I signed the renewal.
We haven't changed water consumption & I've considered the possibility that the old water company was underbilling. However, I've lived in my own apartments for the last 18 years and the water bill has never been over $60 that I can recall. And I have 6 kids, 2 of whom no longer live with me, so if anything, usage should be going down....
Do the bills cover the same time period as the old company's did? In my area, some water companies bill every 30 days and some bill every 60 days.
Also, have you compared price per gallon or CCF (whichever they use)? Maybe this new company charges more for the same usage.
Are you required to use a certain water company? Is switching back to the old company not an option?
If it isn't any of these things, you could have a leak. Try this. Turn off all your water sources and go look at your meter. Watch it over the course of an hour, without using any water, and see if it moves at all (assuming it is of a type that shows this, I understand some of the new digital ones you can't do this).
Yes, this current bill is for one month - $137. They said the first high one was only for 2 weeks because the system automatically stopped the billing in the middle of the month because it was high. I don't get that.
But it's back on 30 days now. I haven't compared price per gallon...but I wouldn't think it would be THAT high. I've lived in a lot of apts in the last 18 years, and this is a first.
We don't have an option on water companies - it switched when the complex was sold.
I'll try your suggestion for checking for leaks tonight I guess and then call the apt manager tomo. Thanks for your input!
Is it possible to rent elsewhere in that town without this sort of water bill?
Definitely. These are unusually high bills. The manager agreed, which is why she went through the trouble of emailing me & calling me several times about it, but she thought it would go back down to normal.
Definitely. These are unusually high bills. The manager agreed, which is why she went through the trouble of emailing me & calling me several times about it, but she thought it would go back down to normal.
You can break your lease for any reason you want. The kicker is, you probably won't do without paying a hefty fee. Read you lease and see what it says about early termination.
You can break your lease for any reason you want. The kicker is, you probably won't do without paying a hefty fee. Read you lease and see what it says about early termination.
Yeah...I know what it is. 60 days notice, fee equal to 1 month rent & owe the rest of the lease until they get the apt rented out again.
I was just hoping there would be a different way out since the renewal lease doesn't start until next week.
Do you get your water bill directly from the utility company, or does your apartment complex use a third-party company to bill residents for water/trash/etc?
Is there any chance your apartment might be willing to credit you a partial month's rent, or perhaps some other amenity (covered/garage parking, painting an accent wall for free, etc).
Reread the lease. You pay an early termination fee and then you get OUT of the lease and no longer have to pay monthly rent, even if they never re-rent.
The other option is you dont pay an early termination fee, and you continue to pay the monthly rent on the due date until they re-rent (or until end of lease, whichever is earlier). But they must attempt to rerent. They cannot sit on the empty apt and accept your rent and refuse to look for another renter.
So....your lease should specify the early termination fee OR you pay rent until it's rerented.
I would find another place, give the 60 day notice and pay them the 1 month early termination fee upon move out.
Any rental you can break the lease and simply keep paying monthly rent until re-rented. There is no point in paying an early termination fee AND paying monthly rent. It's one or the other.
60 days notice, (OR) fee equal to 1 month rent (OR) owe the rest of the lease until they get the apt rented out again.
Any one of those three is reasonable... all three is criminal.
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