Water bill nightmare.

[Sjm9911]

Its more then one months bill , so unless the nebibours are stretching the pool filling out over lots of weeks i dont think anyone is stealing it. Meter or a leak after the meter. Check the meter to see if its running. You said the water company allready checked for leaks, so it has to be the meter.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

We had something similar happen. We got a kitten at Christmas and by the time he was about six months old, he discovered that he enjoyed flushing the toilet. So he flushed it over and over again while we were at work because he was bored. It's funny now, but those bills stung. We have to close our bathroom doors when we aren't home!

 

[wenrob]

Its more then one months bill , so unless the nebibours are stretching the pool filling out over lots of weeks i dont think anyone is stealing it. Meter or a leak after the meter. Check the meter to see if its running. You said the water company allready checked for leaks, so it has to be the meter.

They checked the bill for what would look like leaks not the property. My bet is on the meter but I’d still have things checked. As I said in my previous post my DH and the water company both insisted it couldn’t be a leak and it was.

 

[Sjm9911]

They checked the bill for what would look like leaks not the property. My bet is on the meter but I’d still have things checked. As I said in my previous post my DH and the water company both insisted it couldn’t be a leak and it was.

You have to check the meter to see if water is running, if your are charged for it it registers on the meter. You can see it runing. If you have a leak before the meter your not charged for, then it would be hard to tell. But if everything in your home is off and the meter is runing its an outside leak. You can also here the water flowing. Its really a simple way to tell.

 

[tvguy]

The water company is sending someone to check the reader, but I'm not getting any other offers of assistance.

That's exactly what you need to do. They aren't going to offer assistance until it is proven you have a defective meter.

 

[kaytieeldr]

If you dont have a leak, and the meter tests ok, someone may be opening up the outside spigot, but i dought that. It would have to be consistently over the period billed and shut off and not leave evidance of water use behind

Or a neighbor with a particularly lush lawn? Given that it's only the last two summerish months so far, I wouldn't be shocked if somebody adjacent to you is hooking their long hose to your outside water supply.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

I'm in the UK and I'm on a water meter, but, when I moved house, downsizing, I thought my water bills would go down as my garden doesn't need anywhere as much water, I have no bath, just a shower and there's only me, but, my water bill has increased from £24 a month to £39!! I called Welsh Water and they say it's correct, although I have no idea how. So now I'm being ultra frugal, watering my plants with used dishwater, not flushing the loo after every use and making sure my laundry loads are more economical, so if the bills don't go down then I'm going to insist on them checking my meter instead of letting them fob me off. So get someone to check that there are no leaks or that your meter isn't faulty.

 

[lanejudy]

I'm in the UK and I'm on a water meter, but, when I moved house, downsizing, I thought my water bills would go down as my garden doesn't need anywhere as much water, I have no bath, just a shower and there's only me, but, my water bill has increased from £24 a month to £39!! I called Welsh Water and they say it's correct, although I have no idea how. So now I'm being ultra frugal, watering my plants with used dishwater, not flushing the loo after every use and making sure my laundry loads are more economical, so if the bills don't go down then I'm going to insist on them checking my meter instead of letting them fob me off. So get someone to check that there are no leaks or that your meter isn't faulty.

You may have less efficient appliances that are using more water — older washing machine, dishwasher, ice maker, larger toilet tank, etc. You can put a new flush mechanism on to limit the amount of water used. One old apartment in which I lived had 2 bricks in the tank to take up space (thus less water filled and flushed) - I don’t recommend that last one but it was a funny discovery!

 

[tvguy]

You may have less efficient appliances that are using more water — older washing machine, dishwasher, ice maker, larger toilet tank, etc. You can put a new flush mechanism on to limit the amount of water used. One old apartment in which I lived had 2 bricks in the tank to take up space (thus less water filled and flushed) - I don’t recommend that last one but it was a funny discovery!

The bricks in the tank is an old water saving trick. We remodeled six years ago and you can only buy water saving toilets here in California now. They work pretty well, but (TMI) sometimes those need to be flushed 3 times to clear the bowl. In those cases you are actually using more water. Where we really us water here is on the lawn. Our summer water bill, when it is regularly over 100 degrees is when it goes up. And while my entire front and backyard are lawn, my lot is only .17 acre. My parents house was on half an acre, and all lawn. But there was no water district of bill for them, everyone had their own well so you just paid for the electricity to run the pump.

 

[Hisgirl]

Is there a way you can turn a valve and turn off the water to the house for several hours then check the meter to see if it gauged water use?

 

[disneylove69]

Is there constructione near you or do your neighbors have some complaint? My city raised its rates by a lot. Many people didnt know and questioned it. Turns out construction near by tapped into residences lines and used the water. Also could someone be hooking up a hose to your house. Happened to my mom. You can get spigot locks.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Turns out construction near by tapped into residences lines and used the water.

Dang that's sneaky of them. I'd be so upset if that happened in our neighborhood and we still have tons of construction going on.

 

[firefly_ris]

Is there a way you can turn a valve and turn off the water to the house for several hours then check the meter to see if it gauged water use?

That's what I was thinking... turn off your main before you both leave the house and see what the usage shows while you're gone.

 

[MrsPete]

This happened to us a couple years ago. We looked under the house /into the crawl space, and we discovered a 2400 square foot pool. 2" deep. Our hot water heater was leaking.

We really did "use the water", so we had to pay it; however, we called the water department and they removed the sewer half of the bill ... after all, we took the water out of the pipes, but we did not send it back down the drain.

 

[crisi]

If its a leak then usage should be consistent throughout the day. Leaks don't start at 2 and stop at 5. Turn off any water to the outside of your house. That will keep anyone from using your water for their lawn. And the timing is pretty suspicious to be a broken meter - its quite a coincidence that the times your meter is inaccurate is right when you are not home. Make sure anything on a timer (sprinkler system?) is turned off.

 

[tvguy]

Is there constructione near you or do your neighbors have some complaint? My city raised its rates by a lot. Many people didnt know and questioned it. Turns out construction near by tapped into residences lines and used the water. Also could someone be hooking up a hose to your house. Happened to my mom. You can get spigot locks.

Contractors here draw water off fire hydrants. But they have to buy a permit to do that. Not sure how it would be possible to tie into residential lines, other than to run a hose to your spigot.

 

[Sjm9911]

Just out of boredom, figured the usage was about 33,000 gallons for the month. Baised off of prices in Nj. Now figure a garden hose has a fliw rate of 10 gallons a minute ( and thats if its close) thats a lot of time for someone to be using your spigot. So , probably not a water thief.

 

[disneylove69]

Dang that's sneaky of them. I'd be so upset if that happened in our neighborhood and we still have tons of construction going on.

Worst Prt is city made homeowners still pay.

 

[disneylove69]

Contractors here draw water off fire hydrants. But they have to buy a permit to do that. Not sure how it would be possible to tie into residential lines, other than to run a hose to your spigot.

Live in a rural area so not sure how are water lines work. I know the city uses very hard well water and rates go up every year.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Worst Prt is city made homeowners still pay.

That's terrible!