Water Meter question

[HeadnSouth]

I've been in the plumbing industry for about 30 years and this has got me puzzled. Got a call from a client that hasn't been living in the house for the past year and they suddenly get a water bill for $2k for the last month.

I pulled the water meter pit cover and both of the WM dials are dead still. I marked them with a marker just to be sure. There's no water in the pit and there's nothing leaking inside the house. Checked toilets, HWH blowoff.

I've never seen a WM go bad but I also haven't done that much WM work.

Anybody got any ideas? I'm scratching my head.
Does my client have any recourse?

[Redwood]

High Pressure cause a T&P to blow off down a drain then stop when the pressure lowered?

A neighbor borrow the hose to fill a pool or two...

Is the irrigation on?

Or the meter reader blew it...

[HayZee518]

Is the street cock shut off? If not read redwood's comments.

[HeadnSouth]

High Pressure cause a T&P to blow off down a drain then stop when the pressure lowered?

A neighbor borrow the hose to fill a pool or two...

Is the irrigation on?

Or the meter reader blew it...

I asked the real estate lady showing the house and nobody has a pool nearby. Irrigation is off and we checked the meter numbers and they went up. I actually live in the same neighborhood and haven't experienced any pressure surges. 100 +- 24/7. Checked the HWH blowoff and it was a wet but with that much water I think I would have seen a sign in the mulch.

I shut the main inside the house and will reopen tomorrow and recheck the flow indicator.
I haven't calculated how much water $2k in 30 days is but I'd bet the house I'd see SOME kind of sign of a leak or if a 3/4" line would produce that.
I've contemplated pressurizing the system with air and see if that shows anything.

No I haven't shut the main at the meter, the flow indicator shows no leak.

[HeadnSouth]

The client looked closer at the bill for what they were being charged for and it looks like a decimal point was moved. So instead of using 158,000 gallons they used 158 gal.

[HeadnSouth]

The water company said no dice on the decimal point being off so she's stuck with a 2k water bill.
Any ideas on how to fight this?

[HayZee518]

have a different company test the water meter.

[manhattan42]

It's likely a metering or meter reading error and since the water company owns the meter, will probably not admit to it readily.

Have your customer send the bill to her attorney and have her attorney forward a letter to the water company and your state's public utility commission if there is one.

Then see how fast the bill is corrected.

[pushkins]

158,000 gallons in a single year ?........that's about 8 x what my pool holds.

It's also 432 odd gallons a day, 18 gallons an hour (24/7). No water leaks in the home (that amount of water would be catastrophic.) No obvious ground water outside and no help from the water company.......next thing I'd be doing is talking to a lawyer (and I don't like lawyers...lol).

Have you checked the water meter numbers against the bill numbers, if there was that big of a leak (I doubt it) then the meter should be very different now to even when it was read last.


Wait...I just re read your post....158,000 gallons (2K) in 30 days ?????
that's 5266 gallons a day or 3 Olympic pools a year.....letter...letter....letter !!!!