Ideals about astounding water bill increase ?
 

Stumped on what to do/check next. Sorry about Title above, meant to type "Ideas", not "Ideals"... LOL. Here's the summary

. current water bill (not irrigation portion) showed 5 times the usage of the last 26 months of bills
. of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon
. sewer usage was also a shocking amount of course
. started with checking toilets for constant running (no malfunctions)
. went on to all sinks, laundry included, bath, showers, etc. (no drips)
. checked under cabinets, outside hose connection, garage, everything we knew of connected to water use, no signs of dampness, nothing !
. finally called plumber who was the sub on building our home since he knew it and we have the original building specs
. he did a visual only (didn't run actual tests through all pipe in the walls since he said usage of that magnitude into the dry wall would show some signs of what was going on) and didn't charge us as he saw no signs of a possible reason

Where do we go from here ? Called to see if Village water department ever had an error when they read the meter, or had to replace a faulty meter. Lady said "NEVER, I can assure you you need to find the leak in your home", so end of that conversation. What to do ?

Turn all the water off. Check the meter if it’s running you have a leak. If it’s not turning the meter may be bad.

Add to that: if the meter is running with all the faucets turned off then turn off the main water valve in your home (mine is in the outside wall just inside the garage). This would tell you if there is a leak in the wall or a leak between the meter and your home.

I have heard of the expansion tank on the hot water heater going bad and leaking. But if that was the problem then I would expect you would see the water puddling somewhere.

Toilets can leak intermittently, especially if the fill valve has a slow leak. Put some food dye in the tank and check often to see if the color goes to the bowl.

Install a remote water reader and monitor it yourself. Flume (which measures what the METER reads) or streamlabs, which measures what you USE. Both found on Amazon.

Meters have been replaced here in TV as faulty, the reps statements misinformed.

"of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon" that makes me strongly believe no one has been reading your meter all this time and when they finally did you had used more water than you've been paying for. Heard of this happening before, curious what your next bill will be, probably closer to your average bill.

We are also stumped and would like to know how many others have had similar issues, especially with the new smart-meters they have been using over past couple years.
Our experience: We turn our water off before heading north for summer and bills show zero usage for summer. Last month our reading showed 60,000 gal (non-irrigation) usage for the month even though water was still off (we have used only 13,000 gal TOTAL since we purchased year and a half ago)!! Just returned….no signs of water or leakage anywhere. Turned water back on, everything working fine. Was told when called water district “we haven’t had a single one of our smart meters fail.” Still trying to deal with them but without much luck. Thinking they get many, many calls since have been on hold for long periods….
Good luck with resolving your issue!

Good point. OP, I would suggest that you go online to districtgov.org and view several of your neighbors' water bills to see if they have the same billing pattern. That is public information. It could be that the meters are not being read every month.

You might want to check the meter (in the box in the ground typically between the houses, one for irrigation and one for potable water, check the one labeled "potable") to see if the value on the meter is close to the value on your bill.

Interesting thought. Our water bill, they actually charge you more per gallon when you use more. If, that is what happened they were over billed through slight of hand. The OP does not say they are in the villages full time. Someone could be stealing water. I've seen companies filling trucks out of the fire hydrants. I doubt that is legal.

We all tend to use the phone. It is easy but often not wise. I recently had four different issues going with four different entities at the same time. That is way beyond my pain limit. A return receipt letter is proof you have taken action. A phone call, you can send a return receipt letter saying confirming my phone call to on x/xx/xx at x:00 am.

"We have not had a single one of our smart meters fail." What does that mean? The not so smart meters used just weeks ago now they do fail?

Look at the meter and verify the numbers match the bill
Write down the numbers weekly see if it makes sense.
On average most homes ( 2- people) in the villages use 2-3000 gallons a month sometimes 5k depends on many factors and lifestyle.
Showers, laundry, dishwasher, hoses usage etc. and very possible a bad meter ( or neighbors/ contractors using your hose)

I was told, about 2 months ago, that our water price was going to go up 8 percent in October. This came from a girl who works in that Department for TV. She was as shocked as I was. That may explain some of the increased water bills but not the OP.

BAD FLAPPER or Gasket in Toliet Tank.... my guess

The lawn people would drive their riding mower over the meter box in the yard. The box is over the main lines for irrigation and potable water, and can almost touch them (in our case, they touched after the box settled over the years). I discovered that ours broke right below the box's edge. Of course the break was on our side of the meter, so we had to pay for the extra usage. Shut off the main and repaired it myself. They will give you a discount if you apply for one. Now we have it mowed by push mower