Outragous Water Bill
 

My most recent water bill was for 18,850 gallons and we were still up north for the summer and our water was turned off. Supposedly the water company checked the meter and it is reading correctly. Their only answer has been that there must have been a leak and that the water wasn't turned off. If nearly 19,000 gallons of water leaked my house or yard would have been flooded. There's no underground leak because days after the billing cycle there was no usage. I have a weekly homewatch person and if they had forgotten to turn off the water they would have realized it the next week and that wasn't the case. Last summer I had a bill for 3,000 gallons...again not there and water off. They tried to tell us a toilet must have been running....yea with the water turned off! We will be retuning to TV next week and I plan to go up the ladder meeting with people until I get a reasonable answer. 19,000 gallons.....that's a swimming pool. Any suggestions?

Sprinkler line leaking? With our sandy soil, the water may not bubble up.

Hmmmm....did one of your neighbors just get a swimming pool filled?

The gallons were for water/sewer, not irrigation.

the float in the toilet is stuck open, all that water is going down the drain.

HaHa....I don't think anyone got a pool.

Can't be a toilet issue with water turned off.

and that's why you should shut off the water , when not home for more than a few days

OP says the water WAS shut off.

you say home watch shuts off your water... oops.

Well when you get here: Make sure all the faucets and the garden hose is turned off, unplug the sprinkler control box. Turn the water on and read the meter. If it is showing water being used, go inside and check to see if the toilets have running water. If the toilets are not running water, all faucets are off, and the sprinkler system is off...you should not be using any water. If the meter is showing water usage at this point, you need to call a plumber as you have a leak between house and meter or under slab of house (they run copper tubing from bathroom to bathroom under slab here).

If the meter shows no usage with all faucets and the sprinkler system off; I would suspect the sprinkler system has a leak. Look for dollar weed in the lawn (it flourishes in wet ground).

I hear what you are saying of a possible leak. The billing period stopped 9/21 and the water co said there was no usage from 9/20 to 10/3, the date I spoke with them. If there is a leak wouldn’t there have been usage from 9/29 to 10/3? I last spoke to them on 10/16 and water usage was minimal...homewatch flushes toilets, runs dishwater...again how could there be a leak? Normal usage in our absence is 30 gals. The high usage was for water/sewer so the irrigation shouldn't come into play? The info from the water co is so conflicting....high usage to minimal usage. Certainly glad the usage is back to normal but leaves a lot of unexplainable causes for the one month excessive use....18,850 gals!

Possible scenario:

Home watch forgot to shut water off
Leak in toilet
You receive outrageous water bill and call home watch
They deny problem and secretly go turn water off
From that time forward water meter records no usage

Our home watch forgot to do two things they said would be done prior to our return. One was minor, although it required getting up on a ladder. The other was major, the result being the softener wasn't running for a month until we realized they hadn't turned it back on (plug hidden behind garage shelves & we didn't check to make sure it was plugged back in, which was our bad as well).

given the fixed flat rates and then a 3 tier usage system the Water utility has an opinion that they are sending liquid gold through our pipes.

I have called SECO because our bill is $100 + more this month . the rep checked our history and agreed we never had near that much usage. they promised to take another reading and contact before payment comes due on this invoice.

I think it isn't Seco.

Water cost here is less than in Ohio where we lived.

We had a broken pipe to our pool at one point and that spiked the water bill.