Who is responsible? Water Meter Situation

Question

I moved to Atlanta last year and as a tenant, have gotten firsthand experience dealing with a property manager, HOA, and owner(don't know why if you have a property manager). It has been TERRIBLE!   Needless to say, I am moving back to New Orleans at the end of the month, March 2018. Not because of the terrible experience though lol.

In February of this year, I was contacted about paying $232 for the water because I hadn't paid since I moved in at the end of March 2017. I replied that I cannot pay a bill that I haven't physically gotten but I paid it with no problem. Fast forward to Friday, March 9th, 2018. The property manager sends me an email saying I owe $710 in water and I need to pay it now or it will be taken from my security deposit.  Yes you read that right. So I immediately emailed her asking her where that number came from since I thought this issue was resolved.  She said the owner got a notice from the HOA saying there was adjustment in the water meters and this is backpaying for the water since April 2017.  First things first, didn't know you can backpay on water. Does that work like the cable company?  You're guessing my usage and giving me an amount based on that? So I asked for proof. They gave me all the bills from their third party billing company, not the water company, from April 2017.  No bill has amounts over $12 until this year with a sudden $710. I asked again to show me proof of the water adjustment and I still haven't gotten anything back. I called the HOA, they sent a ledger detailing the $232 with a handwritten number of $710 below it.  Is this something I can take to a laywer? Is it even worth it?

Kimberly Jones · Answer

@Angelique Clarke have you heard what is going on here with S&WB? They have completely lost control of the billing system and none of our water bills are right. WWL news has been trying to get to the bottom of it all and half the people in the city are trying to figure out a way to get a class action lawsuit going. We can get a normal bill one month and then the next month it triples, the month after that it can be negative usage then back to 4 times higher. One month I got a bill for almost $800, only 2 people living in the house. Tried to fight it and after a few months they were kind enough to knock $200 off. No one knows what to expect and none of us can possibly budget without having a clue what the next month may bring. Some folks go months and months without receiving any bills at all and then all of a sudden they owe thousands of dollars. I was at the water company just this morning and there was a man arguing with them because his property has been vacant for 10 years, there isn't even a meter there, but they were steadily sending him bills. It is the craziest thing I have ever seen. The truly sad part is that we can't fight them. We either pay up or go without.

JD Martin · Answer

There's a statutory time frame for them returning your deposit, and I would make them follow that to the letter. Find out what it is in the State of Georgia. 30, 60, 90 days are common deadlines, and landlords can be found to owe double or triple the amount if they violate this.

Angelique Clarke · Answer

@JD Martin thanks for your help! Now if I can just get this non-responsive HOA to respond to that request.

JD Martin · Answer

If it were me, I would ask for the billing statements from whoever reads, calculates, and sends the bills. That's usually the water utility, but it can be a private reading company. It's possible they were reading the meter wrong, which wouldn't absolve you of having to pay the overage. That would be a long time to misread the meter but I've heard of it in cases where the meter case is scratched, the pit always full of water, and similar situations.

Angelique Clarke · Answer

@JD Martin thanks for the reply.  I'm pretty sure that's a common story but in my case, it actually happened. I received a water bill that wasn't mine and told to disregard in April 2017 and then hadn't seen one until February 2018. In LA, the water bill of my SFH ranges from $20 to $40 so the average amount they estimated seemed high to me. I guess it depends on where you are regionally.  They told me you'll have six months to pay the adjusted amount but because you're lease ends in March 2018, we need the lump sum.  Kind of short end of the stick situation? It's not my fault my lease just so happens to end in March and the meters were malfunctioning.  I just needed clarity on the next steps to take.

JD Martin · Answer

Thoughts:

1. Not getting a bill doesn't absolve you of the responsibility to pay. Everyone knows they owe, some just figure they'll skate away since they never got the bill. I've heard this excuse thousands of times.

2. You are absolutely within your rights to see a detailed accounting of charges owed to you.

3. It should be relatively simple to figure out how much your water bill should have been. Whatever your minimum charge is, plus any per-thousand gallon charges.

If you were to pay water & sewer, $942 for 12 months of usage is probably about right. That works out to $78.50 per month, and that's not unusual or exorbitant for combined water and sewer charges (in fact, where I live, I pay that much monthly for water only - we don't have sewer). $232 for 12 months of water would be a ridiculously low charge.