water bill from hell

Gismo123 · January 2013

What is your average water usage and bill? We just bought a new house and the city is trying to say we used 45,000 gallons in 40 days and owe $438.36!!!! this is insane....we have NEVER used that much and the only thing that has changed is we have a new lawn which from the research I did uses 8 gallons a min. and we watered every day using about 14,400 gallons.

We have an HE washer which uses 8 gallons per load, we do about 10 loads a week so that's another 480 gallons for about 6 weeks . So far we are at 14,880 gallons, I doubt we used over 30,000 to bath ourselves or do the dishes! Anyone got any advice?

AliciaS1411 · January 2013

Holy. Sh!t. That is insane! I would be asking to see their levels and the dates on it. How recently did you move in?

FWIW- Our average bill is about $35..

Gismo123 · January 2013

AliciaS1411:
Holy. Sh!t. That is insane! I would be asking to see their levels and the dates on it. How recently did you move in?

FWIW- Our average bill is about $35..

We moved in on Dec. 1st.

unaveragejane · January 2013

A cousin of ours got a bill like this. It turns out she had a pipe bust down in the ground in front of her house, and they didn't find the leak for weeks. Thankfully when she explained what happened, the water company reduced her bill.

jess9802 · January 2013

Sounds like you have a leak in one of your lines. This happened to a co-worker of mine; all of a sudden her water usage spiked with no good explanation. It took a lot of work to find out why they were going through 80,000 gallons a month.

FWIW, in the middle of summer when watering our lawns every day we use about 13,000 gallons in a month, which averages out to $30/mo. In the winter's it's about 7,000 gallons a month, or about $20.

laurenhankey · January 2013

Our bill for every 3 months is about $35. Does your city charge you every 3 months? Everywhere I have lived is like that. YOu may want to see the bill and make sure you aren't being charged for someone else's usage from the previous 2 months.

jc0n15 · January 2013

Our quarterly bill is about $100.

giggles0918 · January 2013

laurenhankey:
Our bill for every 3 months is about $35. Does your city charge you every 3 months? Everywhere I have lived is like that. YOu may want to see the bill and make sure you aren't being charged for someone else's usage from the previous 2 months.

My thoughts excatly. I was want to make sure that I wasn't being charged for the previous homeowners. Our bill is about $100 per quarter.

alizabethanne · January 2013

giggles0918:
laurenhankey:
Our bill for every 3 months is about $35. Does your city charge you every 3 months? Everywhere I have lived is like that. YOu may want to see the bill and make sure you aren't being charged for someone else's usage from the previous 2 months.
My thoughts excatly. I was want to make sure that I wasn't being charged for the previous homeowners. Our bill is about $100 per quarter.

Agreed. I would make sure they aren't charging you the previous owners bill! I think the lawyer that would have closed the deal for you should have confirmed that everything was clear and paid. I would call them about it.

gitiggr · January 2013

Mine's about 100 a month. I'm betting you have a leak somewhere. That happened to me a few years ago while I was deployed. A pipe burst in my master bath shower. The house was completely empty. The water company noticed the crazy spike and shut off the water. When I got the 760 bill, I contacted them and they forgave the difference. Good luck.

cchill01 · January 2013

Call your water company and tell them you want and audit of your usage. Feel free to tell them you will be contacting your Public Utility Commission.

I will say that whenever my MIL or SIL get new sod, they have really high water bills. My parents run their sprinklers twice a week and they pay $100-$200/month. So, I don't know if that really seems that high to me.

Gismo123 · January 2013

alizabethanne:
giggles0918:
laurenhankey:
Our bill for every 3 months is about $35.  Does your city charge you every 3 months? Everywhere I have lived is like that.  YOu may want to see the bill and make sure you aren't being charged for someone else's usage from the previous 2 months.
My thoughts excatly.  I was want to make sure that I wasn't being charged for the previous homeowners.  Our bill is about $100 per quarter.
Agreed. I would make sure they aren't charging you the previous owners bill! I think the lawyer that would have closed the deal for you should have confirmed that everything was clear and paid. I would call them about it. 

This is a brand new house so there is no previous owner. Since tomorrow is a holiday I have to wait till Tuesday to contact the water company.

Gismo123 · January 2013

cchill01:
Call your water company and tell them you want and audit of your usage.nbsp; Feel free to tell them you will benbsp;contacting your Public Utility Commission.nbsp; I will say that whenever my MIL or SIL get new sod, they have really high water
bills.nbsp; My parents run their sprinklers twice a week and they pay 100200/month.nbsp; So, I don't know if that really seems that high to me.

My brother was telling me he pays about 200 to 300 dollars in the summer when he waters his lawn but that's for 3 months and he's watering a forth of an acre! Our lawn is way smaller and it is for only 40 days.

GeekFantasy · January 2013

Yikes! Ours is about $100 every three months. We did have a crazy high one and ended up having a leak and a toilet that ran (which we knew, just didn't think it would have made a huge difference.) Sounds to me like a leak!

unaveragejane · January 2013

Gismo123:
alizabethanne:
giggles0918:
laurenhankey:
Our bill for every 3 months is about $35. Does your city charge you every 3 months? Everywhere I have lived is like that. YOu may want to see the bill and make sure you aren't being charged for someone else's usage from the previous 2 months.
My thoughts excatly. I was want to make sure that I wasn't being charged for the previous homeowners. Our bill is about $100 per quarter.
Agreed. I would make sure they aren't charging you the previous owners bill! I think the lawyer that would have closed the deal for you should have confirmed that everything was clear and paid. I would call them about it.
This is a brand new house so there is no previous owner. Since tomorrow is a holiday I have to wait till Tuesday to contact the water company.

Did you go through a builder? You're probably going to need to contact them, too, especially if it is a leak. Are you on a slab or a crawlspace?

Gismo123 · January 2013

unaveragejane:
Gismo123:
alizabethanne:
giggles0918:
laurenhankey:
Our bill for every 3 months is about $35. Does your city charge you every 3 months? Everywhere I have lived is like that. YOu may want to see the bill and make sure you aren't being charged for someone else's usage from the previous 2 months.
My thoughts excatly. I was want to make sure that I wasn't being charged for the previous homeowners. Our bill is about $100 per quarter.
Agreed. I would make sure they aren't charging you the previous owners bill! I think the lawyer that would have closed the deal for you should have confirmed that everything was clear and paid. I would call them about it.
This is a brand new house so there is no previous owner. Since tomorrow is a holiday I have to wait till Tuesday to contact the water company.
Did you go through a builder? You're probably going to need to contact them, too, especially if it is a leak. Are you on a slab or a crawlspace?

It's a slab.

snicksnack · January 2013

In addition to what everyone else said make sure the builders are not using your water. I came home one day to find builders using my electricity and my neighbor's water. They were unable to speak english so I pulled their appliances out of my plugs and turned my neighbor's water off. They were not happy at all I then called the builder who paid a portion of my electric bill and said he was storying stating there workers were being lazy not wanting to hook up the generator. After that I put locks on all my outlet covers and turned my hose bibs off until construction was over.

The other thing you need to check is if you are being charged for it being a new neighborhood. We have to pay 50 a month for the fact our neighborhood was new and infrastructure needed to be built.