$4,300 water bill... Any help would be appreicated

[Sean O'Brien]

Hey everyone, 

I've had properties for about 5 years now and have never had this happen to me before. We were charged $4,300 for ONE MONTH of water bills when historically the bill was about $100. There were no leaks, no damage or anything but the city changed the meter. 

Is there any way to fight this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

[Bill B.]

In MOST areas if you find the leak and fix it the water department will refund your bill. I know water bills escalate by usage but even if they quadrupled from $1.25/1,000 gallons. You’d be looking at over 3.5million gallons. 100,000 gallons per day. That sounds impossible. A garden hose is 6gpm. Under 400gph under 1,000gpd. That means 100 hoses running 24/7. 

Now maybe you’re paying 10x normal prices because of usage but that’s still 50 hoses 24/7. Seems like a noticeable amount. Walk out to street and see if meter is spinning. If so, Turn off the water at the house see if meter is spinning. If so turn off water at the house side of meter and see if it’s running. 

If no after step 1, leak is in house, if yes but no after step 2, leak is between house and meter, if yes on step 3 the meter is defective. I’m going to assume that there was a transcription error somewhere and a number was written down wrong. Check the meter reading for the last 2 bills. Then go look at the meter and check current reading. (Remember this is costing you $150/day if it’s a leak.)