$11,000 Water Bill

[justinramani]

The plumber paid $625 of 11,000... that's 5%! I don't think that is proper. He caused the waste. All of the other users subsidized his laziness. That is a big part of what is wrong with the world today....

The bill was lowered by the county to $625 and the builder paid the bill, not the plumber. In my opinion the problem was made right. Regardless of who paid what, the bottom line is that the bill was paid on our behalf and the water line was replaced. That's a fair resolution.

 

[Deere Dude]

That shows me the markup on city water. 95% markup.

 

[bob11x]

It's been awhile since I read the beginning. So the builder was the negligent party that did shoddy installation? You certainly shouldn't (and weren't) held responsible and that is proper. The county should not negotiate with people caused their own issue though.
If you had a pipe buried for 20 years and it leaked without you knowing – yeah I can agree that they should negotiate. But if he intentionally cut corners on installation and caused this kind of waste then no, the party responsible should be held to the full price.

And I don't think there's that kind of "markup " on water – between the cost of installation, repair, treatment, monitoring to government regulations, and cost of chemicals – it cost money to treat water to make it safe to drink. From what others have said it looks like negotiation is a one time deal meant for no-fault occurrences, which makes sense.

 

[Sigarms]

If you had a pipe buried for 20 years and it leaked without you knowing yeah I can agree that they should negotiate. But if he intentionally cut corners on installation and caused this kind of waste then no, the party responsible should be held to the full price.

If you had a water line pipe leaking past a year, I'm not exactly certain how you would get a 11k water bill without it being a surprise.

I have no clue as to the regulatory procedures in place for water companies, however, I'm guessing that if the water bill was negotiatied in part by the water company, there was a reason why they did. I have little doubt that at some point in time for this residential location that the water company knew that there must of been something wrong with the water usage rate before the OP recieved his bill. Did that play a part in the water companies decision making process? Guess we'll never know. However, if the water company didn't want this issue to go away like the GC and plumber did, they (the water company) wouldn't of negotiated with the GC and plumber on the new bill.

Ultimately the OP was taken care of, which I believe most of us will agree was the most important outcome per this situation.

 

[EddieWalker]

Some of the comments about the water company have me wondering if everyone understands that it's not really a company. It's a public utility the is controlled by federal regulations and managed by a person who is controlled by a board of directors that are usually volunteers fellow citizens, though in some area I'm sure the board receives a salary. I can't speak for every water utility, but here, they are not allowed to make a profit, just enough to cover expenses and payroll. It is not a business where profit is part of their pricing, which is also why so many are using older pumps, run down and not keeping up with updates like most people would expect.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Some of the comments about the water company have me wondering if everyone understands that it's not really a company. It's a public utility the is controlled by federal regulations and managed by a person who is controlled by a board of directors that are usually volunteers fellow citizens, though in some area I'm sure the board receives a salary. I can't speak for every water utility, but here, they are not allowed to make a profit, just enough to cover expenses and payroll. It is not a business where profit is part of their pricing, which is also why so many are using older pumps, run down and not keeping up with updates like most people would expect.

Very good point Eddie. I was on the board of our rural water system for 25 years, and most of those years as Vice President. We were always advised by the rural water association to manage our rates in a way that we could keep up with maintenance and repairs. Not to make a profit, but to be sure that when a major repair was needed, we could handle it financially. I was paid $25 per meeting that I attended, and once a year we had a meal paid for around Christmas time.

I enjoyed serving on the board. We had a very well run system and our system is in good shape financially. I've seen other systems in our area that their board wanted to keep rates as low as possible and ended up going bankrupt. Our board was asked to take over one such system, and we declined.

Our system is run by the board who are elected by the members. One day my brother complained about something on our system, and I told him that if he wanted our policy changed, he should get enough votes to get himself elected to the board. He did not. In my 25 years on the board, I don't ever remember any members ever voting in our election of board.

And, I can assure everyone, there is not a 95% profit on the water we produce. If that were the case, I would build my own water system and sell water myself. I don't know all the details of why the OP's system negotiated down from $11,000 to $675 in this case, but it probably had something to do with compassionate board members who felt it was the right thing to do in this situation.

 

[dragoneggs]

When I had a leak between the meter and my rental house in January of this year (30year old white PVC), I still had to pay for the water but at the lowest rate. House is tied into a large private community Non Profit well system.

 

[sawtooth]

So what was the cause of the leak? Sorry but didn't have the patience to read through all 11 pages. I don't know the answer yet but I'm in the plastics industry and I can tell you those pipes were assembled then afterwards were exposed to heat from something. So no I'm curious to the answer. Lol

 

[newbury]

Some of the comments about the water company have me wondering if everyone understands that it's not really a company. It's a public utility the is controlled by federal regulations and managed by a person who is controlled by a board of directors that are usually volunteers fellow citizens, though in some area I'm sure the board receives a salary. I can't speak for every water utility, but here, they are not allowed to make a profit, just enough to cover expenses and payroll. It is not a business where profit is part of their pricing, which is also why so many are using older pumps, run down and not keeping up with updates like most people would expect.

Some small public utilities are run for years like a small fiefdom, maybe no direct profits but a lot of bennies.
Ours in Mississippi was selling water that was terrible, and a lot of people just put up with it and drank bottled water or spent thousands to put in wells. Then someone decided to investigate and found out the guy getting samples for testing the water throughout the system was taking them all from the same clean tap. There were also a bunch of irregularities in the billing.
Total board changeover, we now have pretty good water.

A community to the north of us decided to take over the distribution of natural gas in town. But they were not to bright and put in 10 times as much mercaptan. Because of the topography (basically a bowl shaped valley) and the weather (summer doldrums without breezes for days) the placed smelled like it was a kitchen with the gas left on for days. I stopped when I was coming into town, afraid it was going to explode.
They had a change of board also.

 

[Dr Dirt]

I really need some assistance. My wife recently received two bills from the water company totaling $11,000!!!! We immediately called.our builder and he sent out a guy to figure out what's going on. He found the leak and replaced the pipe, but the hole in the pipe makes no sense to me. It almost looks melted. Has anyone ever seen something like this before? Builder is saying it's a freak accident and that the pipe must have rubbed against a rock. I'm not buying it - first off we have sand for soil, next, the hole isn't at all jagged.

I'm currently deployed to Iraq and this is just causing tremendous stress on my wife and I. The water company is saying that around 2 million gallons leaked in a month (around 50 gpm). Can anyone help me make sense of this????

Thanks in advance,

JustinTapatalk Cloud - Downlaoad File Screenshot_217-5-13-2-53-17.png
Tapatalk Cloud - Downlaoad File Screenshot_217-5-13-2-53-28.png

I believe that pvc piping is not designed for pressure ,,, you may have a case against the builder. I wonder if your local plumbing and/or building inspector should have signed off on the plumbing.