*New update post 70* Very high water bill but no leak??

[LoveBWVVBR]

Make them check. Ask for actual reading verification and work with them some.

I had a 2K bill at my studio and it was the equivalent of a 20,000 gallon pool. They had just put leak detection on the meters and thought it was a false reading. We settled for a smaller bill (don't get too pushy) $168 isn't worth the stress of fighting "city hall" IMHO

This one was $276, and even at that I agree that it's not worth fighting city hall to get it lowered lol. What I want is for the random high bills to stop. We are taking pictures of the meter every single day now, so if they try to claim that it was higher than it was for some reason or it the meter suddenly "jumps" at least we'll have proof.

To add to the weird story, a neighbor was walking his dogs by me when I was on the ground looking at the meter and he stopped and we chatted. Long story short, the same thing happened to him last year and the water dept. never could explain what went on. He never got to the bottom of it but once he called them on it the bills went back to normal. So weird. I don't even know what to think at this point.

 

[Dakota731]

My sister had the same thing happen. It turned out she had a leak between the meter (by the street) and her house. She never thought it could be that because of the amount of water (also swimming pools full), but when the guy dug around the water line it was obvious that there was a lot of water a couple feet underground.

That's exactly what happened to us and it cost several thousand to fix a few years ago ugh

 

[tvguy]

Our neighbor was having some work done to his house, while he was away on vacation. The workers had to shut the water off to his house to do some of the repairs, and hooked a hose up to my outside faucet, without asking us if it was ok.
As soon as I noticed it, I went and unhooked the house, coiled back on his property, and threw a lock on the handle, so it couldn't be used. Told the workers I didn't appreciate them using the water I pay for without permission.

The workers tried to run the house across the front of my house to the other side of the front yard (whoever built my house was really on top of making sure you could access everything from everywhere...three outside faucets (one on each side of the house, and one in the backyard); three lightswitches for the overhead kitchen light, all within five steps of each other; seven electrical outlets in the kitchen (not including the stove, fridge, disposal and dishwasher outlets); and 4 lightswitches in the master bath (one for the tub light, one for the shower, one for the sink lights and one for the closet/toilet lights...only the tub one is far enough from the others to take steps).

I unhooked that one, coiled it up and put it in my garage (the other end was sitting in the driveway). Locked the other faucet too, and the one in the backyard for good measure.

A couple days later, they ran a heavy duty extension cord to the electrical outlet by the front door. I unplugged it, and called the company to come pick up their property. Should have kept the cord and hose, they were good heavy duty ones. The company apologized, and I ended up with a water bill $30 over the usual. My electric went up the next time the budget billing was up for review (they do it every 6 months).

My neighbors had to have their main water line replaced and we hooked up a hose, but they asked FIRST, even though the water district said they did not need to since it was an emergency and under their terms of service, I have to allow it.. The water district did ask which house they were getting water from and they gave us a $1 a day credit on our bill for the 10 days we did this.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Yes, I'd really like any info that could explain what we experienced. The thing is, why would it be intermittent (one month high, next normal, next very high), and why does the meter not show any leaking now if there was a toilet leak? That's what is confounding us.



OMG!!!! Now I'm freaked out. This kind of thing is way more plausible than anything else IMHO. The water dept. asked if anyone could have had access to our water taps and we said that we have cameras and decent neighbors and live on a busy street. I honestly didn't think of something like a contractor hooking up to our water. That is just beyond awful. I would have filmed them and also called the cops! We have cameras so they should have caught anyone who did this...I'll have my husband go back through the timeframe in question to see if this was possible.

How do you lock the outdoor faucets? Is this lock something I could go buy from Ace or Lowes?

We had something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Fozlock-Outd...472674243&sr=8-1&keywords=Outdoor+Faucet+Lock

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

My neighbors had to have their main water line replaced and we hooked up a hose, but they asked FIRST, even though the water district said they did not need to since it was an emergency and under their terms of service, I have to allow it.. The water district did ask which house they were getting water from and they gave us a $1 a day credit on our bill for the 10 days we did this.

If they had asked,we would have been ok with it. It's the fact they did it without made us mad.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We had something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Fozlock-Outd...472674243&sr=8-1&keywords=Outdoor+Faucet+Lock

Thanks, I'm going to order these for the outside water so there is no chance of anyone hooking up to our water.

 

[michelleh1]

I haven't read all of the responses, but we had a similar problem. It ended up being our washer. I'm not sure exactly what was going on, I just know that replacing it fixed the problem. They said that it could've been the dishwasher too. Maybe check your meter while running your appliances.

 

[sunshine1178]

Faulty water meters were a huge issue for one Chicago suburb... http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...ey-meters-replacement-met-20151208-story.html

I'd be curious to know what brand/model the Tinley Park meters were, and whether your town has the same ones.

 

[DOREEN1779]

Any new news? I'm waiting to hear what the issue was.

 

[Cats&Mice]

One possibility is the chain on the toilet flapper could be getting caught under the flapper (if it's too long) or getting tangled and not letting the flapper close. This could be intermittent, but it'll use a lot of water in a hurry. I've had that happen but I can hear the water running, so I notice it right away.
Try reading the meter every day at the same time (or even twice a day if possible) and chart your usage to see if there are unusual patterns.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

When I worked for the gas company when a customer had a crazy high bill with no leak, we changed out the meter. Then sent the old meter to be tested. When we go away we always turn the outside faucet off on the inside of the house to prevent unauthorized usage.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Any new news? I'm waiting to hear what the issue was.

Nope, absolutely nothing to report. They didn't come replace the meter, there is absolutely no explanation of where that water went other than their insistence that "it went through the meter" and our water usage is back to what is normal for us for a typical $90/month bill. We are doing nothing different now than we did last month. We are still photographing the meter every day as we just don't trust it not to suddenly jump. I hope that I don't come back here in a couple of months to report that this month was normal $90 and the next month was $300 for no reason.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Faulty water meters were a huge issue for one Chicago suburb... http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...ey-meters-replacement-met-20151208-story.html

I'd be curious to know what brand/model the Tinley Park meters were, and whether your town has the same ones.

Wow, that is awful. They should have refunded everyone immediately.

Our meter is not digital, so it can't be the same one.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Just an update to say that we are still on track to have a regular $90 bill this month. I called to try to get a paper trail and possibly a credit going for last month, and they are having me fill out paperwork for a "sewer credit" (dumb, since my sewer cost is capped thank goodness). I also talked to the supervisor at the actual water dept. and she is going to test the meter for a $30 fee. I think it's stupid that we have to pay $30 for this, but I want a record that we did everything that we could to prove that they have an issue in case this happens again in the future. This is ridiculous. They should just replace the meter and be done with it.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

UPDATE!! The meter guy was just here. Not only did he replace our meter with a new digital meter (that we get to keep! This isn't temporary like the lady on the phone led me to believe), but he actually DOES think that our meter got stuck. He says sometimes it's one number that gets stuck when it rolls over, that he's seen it happen plenty of times, and HE is the one who will test our meter He took one look at our pool, our tiny little yard, and where our hoses are and said there is no way that it went through a hose or through a toilet. He was pretty confident that it was the meter. I don't know whether or not we will get a credit on that 32,000 gallon bill, but hopefully this new meter has solved the ongoing issue.

I'm glad I pursued it because the city wanted to write it off as us having used the water or having a leak when I knew that neither was the case. The lady on the phone even tried to say that we had a leak that we had fixed and that would explain it. UGH. Oh and this guy even said he's seen cases where 2 houses were tied together and one gets billed for the other's water useage! That's not the case for us I don't think, but seriously...crazy!

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Well, the guy's boss called us yesterday and claimed that the meter tested out perfectly. I actually said to her straight out that we never expected them to say anything different. We are glad that we now have a new meter and hopefully the crazy bills will now stop. This situation has been really crazy and aggrivating. Ultimately they have you over a barrel when it's your water/sewer though because it's darned near impossible to prove that a meter is bad when they are the ones testing it.

 

[robinb]

I missed your Friday update. OF COURSE the old meter was perfect! Lol. I'm glad you have a new one.

 

[kymom99]

Not surprising since your problem was intermittent. If they tried it again it may very well show different results

 

[amcnj]

Glad to hear they switched out the meter. Since that other one could be getting stuck at times, it could just be they didn't run it enough to get to the digit that was getting stuck. Hopefully you are ok now, and they don't give that old meter to someone else!

 

[kymom99]

Glad to hear they switched out the meter. Since that other one could be getting stuck at times, it could just be they didn't run it enough to get to the digit that was getting stuck. Hopefully you are ok now, and they don't give that old meter to someone else!

I thought the same thing