I received my quarterly water bill of $1400 and it shows I used 220,000 gallons of water. My previous bill was for 16,000 gallons, which is average for our street. My next door neighbor is an elderly lady who lives by herself, and her bill had over 160,000 gallons, which is about $1000.
The city claims that because that's what the meter read (and the meter "is not wrong"), that I'm responsible to pay. Even though 220,000 gallons is enough to flood my basement through the attic (3 times after factoring in our typical water usage), the city insists I have a leak. They're willing to send somebody from the water works to help us find the leak, so that we can "decide if we want to call a plumber or not".
I've never dealt with anything like this. Really annoyed at the city because somehow it seems logical to them that I could have that big of a leak without noticing. What should I do?
If this isn't the proper subreddit, please let me know and/or redirect me to a more appropriate one.
EDIT: I shut off all water fixtures, and the meter shows no water flow. I believe the meter is malfunctioning, but they said that there can't be an issue with the meter. They said if there's an issue with the meter, they'll replace it for free, but I'll still be charged for the full bill. Essentially, there's no way I can prove I didn't use the 220,000 gallons of water.
Submitted January 25, 2019 at 10:22AM by pjones235 http://bit.ly/2WkMUzC
