Ridiculous water bill who should pay?

If they haven't fixed it yet-- try to find a shut off valve for that pipe. Perhaps in your crawlspace or basement.

must of been one hell of a leak for a $2000 bill. That's 250,000 gallons at my rate.

Glitch99 said:   $2,000 for 3 months is more than a leaky faucet.

Ya, I took it as a busted pile in the ground outside their house.

daw4888 said:   Glitch99 said:   $2,000 for 3 months is more than a leaky faucet.

Ya, I took it as a busted pile in the ground outside their house.If so, it'd be rather obvious due to the pond forming in the yard.

If it was caused by damage to a pipe or something than it should be the landlord paying to fix it. If you for whatever reason bought a hose and put it on and left the water on, hoping the sprayer at the end of the hose wouldn't let any water out than IMO that should be something you should pay for.

It really boils down to what broke and whether you informed the landlord of the problem and they fixed it quickly and correctly. This coming from a landlord as well.

Not sure where you live but out here the water bill sticks with the house. What that means is you can sign up for water service, never pay it, and then move out as a tenant and technically not get stuck with the bill. Not suggesting to do that but if whatever broke was the landlords property than IMO they should be paying to foot the bill. I would also see if they could drop the fee on the "disposal" of the water. If they can confirm the water leaking wasn't being put down the sewer or anything than they may be kind enough not to charge you such a high rate.

jd2010 said:   asabase said:   must of been one hell of a leak for a $2000 bill. That's 250,000 gallons at my rate.


3 months = 90 days = 21600 hours = 1.2 million minutes.

Thats about 24 oz/minute of water non stop for 3 months. Thats feasible i think?
You added an extra zero. Here is the correct calculation:
3 months = 90 days = 2160 hours = 129600 minutes.

Thats about 1.9 gal/minute of water non stop for 3 months.

A friend of mine fought with the utility company for months and months after receiving a bill for over 16,000 gallons one month.

No amount of logic would break through with the robotic drones on the other end of the phone. The fact that it was more than 10 times his average use, or that it was physically impossible to run that much through the meter in a month did not suffice.

They tried claiming that "maybe a neighborhood kid turned the outside water on.. as a joke or you have a leak" despite the fact that we were in the middle of a severe drought and would have noticed that all of a sudden his house had moved to Venice.

"Maybe your meter reading drone didn't follow directions and forgot to drop off the 1st 2 digits on the meter"

Nope. Just did not make any sense to them. It was definitely a leak.. they agreed to waive the bill as a "one time courtesy"

For my own house I am having something similar since last season: water bill and usage is suddenly more than twice compared to previous same period usages. This only during watering season, that is, when water is ON and not during the winter shut-off. They had changed the meter technology and so I did complain about that but fell on deaf ears.

Now the new watering season is about to begin and I am not sure how best to figure out where the leakage might be after water gets turned on. It certainly was not obvious where or whether there was any leakage. So wondering what might be the best way to catch any under ground leakage and if anyone else beside me is responsible on fixing that ...

to check your water usage make sure everything is turned off that uses water and look at the meter there should be a dial or something that moves called the low flow meter

nebbler said:   my roommate and I identified that they did not fix the hose properly because it was still leakingdripping or streaming?

That is an awful lot of water

I don't understand why this took three months to notice...you didn't notice the first month?

In any event, sounds like the landlord failed in his duty to keep the property fit for habitation. A possible plan of action: pay your rent, tell him you expect him to deal with the repair and the excess water charge, and break the lease if the water gets shut off.

LordKronos said:   ironfist99 said:   Did you also happen to fill up an above ground pool or something as well?

I've filled a 16x32 in ground pool and the cost was only like $150. For 2 grand, we'd probably be talking about an olympic sized swimming pool
First, the water consumption charge is only $750 (as OP clarified in a later post).
Second, water charges vary widely from city to city --- What is the minimum charge, how many gallon (or cu. ft) you get for the minimum, incremental rate over the minimum, summer surcharge, etc.

Al3xK said:   BlueEyesAustinTexas said:   I don't understand why this took three months to notice...you didn't notice the first month?

In any event, sounds like the landlord failed in his duty to keep the property fit for habitation. A possible plan of action: pay your rent, tell him you expect him to deal with the repair and the excess water charge, and break the lease if the water gets shut off.

I don't understand how this wasn't the first question.

I get my waterbill every month. How do you not notice for months 1 and 2?LA DWP issues bill every other month.

I actually just went through this ordeal. I identified a broken pipe underground and insisted the landlord fixed. He took 3 months to fix and when I got my water bill basically was $1500 above my normal bill. I didn't even "negotiate" with him. I basically told him that I am sending a letter to the DWP asking for a rate reduction since it was due to a un-visible break and it was "fixed timely" and that I would deduct whatever I wasn't reimbursed back from the rent. He more or less agreed. Still waiting back from DWP for response.

LA tier 2 water fees are ~$6/HCF

Al3xK said:   I get my waterbill every month. How do you not notice for months 1 and 2?

My water is billed every other month. And at least once every other year I get a bill for 2.5 to 3 months.

I live in San Antonio, and years ago I rented a house with 3 other college roommates. The house was old and the plumbing was pretty crappy, so we had issues with leaky faucets. Well I left town for about a month, to go back to my hometown for a while, and when I got back the faucet to one of the bathroom tubs was running full blast. Apparently the knobs that turn the water on and off where not closing correctly. I believe a part of the faucet called "the seat" was completely worn-out and didn't seal when the knobs were in the off position.

Anyway, none of my lazy roommates did anything about it and let the water run constantly. In fact they would only go out to the street and turn off the water from the road side so that the hot water would get a chance to warm up so they could get a 2minute shower. I was able to fix it when I got back, but about a month or so later we got the water bill, and I kid you not, it was for over $16,000. That's not a typo.

Naturally, I crapped my self when I read it, along with the part that said we used more gallons of water than the whole neighborhood...

So I called up City Public Service, and wouldn't you know it, they gave me and adjustment to $600. Apparently you're allowed a one time adjustment, and thank god for that! Maybe you can request an adjustment as well.

If it was a leaky hose, and you have documented repair, then the provider should agree to waive the sewer portion of the bill above and beyond additional usage because the water did not enter the sewer system.

In my town, this is the only relief offered to people with unusually high water bills. I'd say about 3-4 times a year a resident comes forward with a water bill 10x as high as usual. A running toilet actually can do that to your bill (because of our graduated rate structure).

nebbler said:   The bill included both electricity and water usages, it was rough;y 750 buck for water consumption and 850 for the water disposal,Wait - how did $2,000 now become $1600? And you have no concern about the $700 electric portion?

The dollar amount isnt meaningful as that's just a calculation based on the volume used - so what was the actual water usage? And what do you mean by you "identified" they did not fix the hose properly? And what do you mean by "hose", because a garden hose (the only type of exterior "hose" I can think of) wouldnt really be the landlords responsibility anyways. And the fact you are broke students is irrelevant.

Lots of places bill water usage quarterly; NYC for one. Of course, I don't know of any that bill electricity quarterly.

Is this an investor owned or municipal water company? You mentioned that dealing with the city would be annoying. If it's a city-owned water company and you've already been turned away by the front-line customer service, just send an email to the city council. That will get filtered down to the city manager who will have the billing director get in touch with you. Tell them something broke, you fixed it as soon as you realized, and ask for a one-time break. Many cities have actual written, legally adopted policies for this exact scenario.

coolcommenter said:   It's not your house. Everything that happens inside will be their responsibility. I won't pay it. My land lord should pay it.
you are obviously completely wrong...especially if the tenant contributed to the water overuse in some way; perhaps this leaking "hose" was their property.

your entitled/victimized attitude is disturbing, also.