WATER BILL??

[chillincarp870]

hey guys i live in an apartment with 4 other guys and we just got the water bill and they(apartment complex) billed us $222.76. The 5 guys accross the hall was $45. The maintainence man came to our place to reread the meter and he said it was right. Then he went through our place to find "leaks" he ended up with the conclusion our toilet has been running non-stop for a month and we never heard it. I think this is total B S, but if you could please give your input on what you would do and how to handle this situation i would greatly appreciate it.

[jwmiller33]

talk to your landlord and get the toilet fixed ASAP... landlord should cover that cost.. as for the water bill, your landlord will probably say its your fault for not noticing the water running in the toilet and i would think that you guys would be responsible for the deal. however, depending on how nice your landlord is, maybe you can work out some sort of deal... i would think the toilet running all month would be noticeable, wouldnt it?

[luckey]

You would think the cities would monitor water usage (like the power companies do) to detect abnormal usage. Turn on a few grow lights and they come pounding on your door, let the toilet run and nobody cares. I would bring it up with the landlord but have my doubts they will cover it. Good luck.

[chillincarp870]

thats exactly what i thought. they did fix the toilet if there ever was a leak but yes we would have noticed it we are not a bunch of idiots. and on the city side i called them and never got an answered phone call from 4 different extensions. I also got the landlords # and called him but he didn't answer and i left a message and have yet to hear back from him. It seems like everyone doesnt' want to talk to us the renters. its really shady. I will keep this post updated.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Do you have a softener dedicted to your apartment? If so that's another thing you may want to take a peek at. It could be stuck in a backwash or rinse mode of the regen cycle.

I've seen this one a million times with softeners.

[Macgyver55]

This wouldn't be The Summit Apts would it? My daughter and her friends had the same thing happen to them when they were in college a couple years ago. They fought it and got the charges reduced.

[Redlantern]

How long have you lived there? What were the bills like before this months bill?

A leaky toilet will fill the bowl up enough so that it will flush on its own. With four guys in an apartment, you might just assume someone else is taking a leak and not give it any thought. I'll be curious to see what the next months bill looks like.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Is $222 for a month or a quarter? If that's for the month...OUCH! I haven't seen a water bill over half that for a quarter even when I reseeded my entire back yard and was watering a lot. Sounds a bit fishy.

[chillincarp870]

no this is at college station. the bill before this one was around $25 for 1/2 month. I don't think we have a water softener at least it's not in our apartment so i don't think we do and the water seems fairly hard. i think we would notice it flushing by itself and the water moving by itself. Macgyver55 do you remember what they said to fight and get it down? as of now i feel hopeless dealing with landlords and stuff i'm not an expert on. would a toilet running really rack the bill up to $222? any more help is greatly appreciated due to we are broke and have other bills to pay and more things to worry about than a ******* water bill

[chillincarp870]

we moved in the first of august but we all moved in for good on the 13th. and that bill was around $25

[chillincarp870]

ralph that is for one month is that at all possible??? even with a toilet that leaks?

[CAMAN]

How much did they say you used? I don't know what Mankato charges per 1000 gallons, but after some quick calculations and just estimating $1.50 per 1000 gallons, and assuming your sewer bill also goes off your water bill, I'm estimating about 75000 gallons used, which would equate to about 100 gallons per hour of use on average. That is ALOT for 6 months yet alone 1 month. Again, these are all just estimations since I don't know the actual numbers. I would fight it.

[harvey lee]

My faucet was dripping on the back side of our house and I didn't notice. Water bill was $235.00 and normally its a hondo or a bit more for a month. Thats with 2 in the house. If I water my lawn, then the monthly bill goes to $150-$175.00.

When I talked to our water dept head and a friend who is on the city counsel, they both said I should know if a faucet or something else is running or leaking and I guess they were correct.

Sucks but I had to pay it.

Many towns are getting a bit more spendy on their water bills.

[Surface Tension]

The toilette wouldn't flush by itself, it would just continue to run. Inside the tank there is a water line. As the float float rises it should shut the water off before it gets above that water line. If the valve that is attached to the float is defective or the float is out of adjustment the water will raise above the vertical tube and then run into the bowl.

There is also a flapper, when you lift the handle(flush)the flapper comes up and there is where you get the volume of water.

If the flapper doesn't seat correctly water will leak into the bowl. Since the water level never gets high enough to lift the float and shut off the water, it will continue to run.

Modern toilets use 1.5 gallon of water. How fast the tank fills is up to the plumbing, water pressure, and condition of valve. A corroded valve can restrict the water flow and a dirty valve can leak. You might see some toilets fill in 30 seconds while others take a couple minutes.

This is a good example and learning experience for new home owners and renters that up to this point weren't involved with the sort of things to look out for in a home or apartment.

In this case a leaking toilet or faucet.

Did you hear water running, could of been a slight trickle or maybe just a little water running down the side of the bowl?

I would want to talk with the guy that replaced the guts in the toilette. IMO, and since your new occupants, the owner of the apartment is responsible for the bill if it turns out to be the toilette.

Could be that your toilet wasn't the issue here.

I don't know how the billing and reading happens where your at.

As new tenants it could be your first bill was based on yearly or quarterly usage. It could be that after an up to date reading your getting stuck with usage that occurred prior to you moving in. That is something you should be checking into.

It will be interesting to see the next month bill is.

[swamptiger]

Quote:

hey guys i live in an apartment with 4 other guys and we just got the water bill and they(apartment complex) billed us $222.76.

According to my calculations, that comes out to about 15 cases of beer...

[Macgyver55]

I think Frank may have a point about incorrect charges and if the meter was read at the time the last tennants left. I would insist that the meter be tested for accuracy too.

Some quick calculations show:

24 hours x 30 days = 720 hours

720 hours x 60 minutes = 43,200 minutes

43,200 x .005 (average cost per gallon of city water)=$216.00

You would have to use 1 gallon per minute every minute, every hour of every day for the entire month.

Many toilets wont even recover in a minute when working properly, and most are audible at the very least especially when running at that rate.

[chillincarp870]

the guy that reads the meters and suposedly fixed our toilet is out of town til monday. i want to talk to him and the landlord but the landlord will not answer or return my calls. does anyone know what the price of mankato water is per gallon??? so i can bring some math into the office and show them they are nuts. i will bring up all the points brought up here. I thank you for all the help and you can keep it coming. thanks again guys

[Eric Wettschreck]

The price per gallon should be stated on your water bill.

The bill should show per gallon price, meter readings, and gallons used per reading.

[chillincarp870]

it shows none of that it says the water usage charge is 222.76 that is what i thought right when i saw it. the girl at the front desk is just the middle man and its hard to talk to her about this issue

[Macgyver55]

Straight from the City of Mankato government site:

Water Rates: Mankato, MN

Cost of Service $4.21/month

Per unit $3.13

More than 300 units $2.17

Note: 1 unit = 100 cubic feet = 750 gallons

[chillincarp870]

so this is telling me that 750 gallons is $2.17 and this states that i used roughly 76990 gallons in one month??

[chillincarp870]

this was figured by taking 222.76/2.17=102.65units used. then 102.76x750gal=76990.7 gal used?? am i right??

[S.D. Ice Angular]

I guess all I can add is:

Any water bill I have ever had is sold in units of cubic feet "NOT" Gallons.

As Macgyver stated this may be in 100 cubic increaments.

I would also like to say if 5 guys didn't notice a toilet running you must be really studying or throwing some killer parties.

My guess one of you would have noticed even on a really bad hangover.

I would argue it for sure...

Good Luck

[SkunkedAgain]

If it were me, I'd be tempted to document everything extremely well and then send a letter and phone call to the landlord detailing the entire problem, and that if he/she refuses to address the problem, you will deduct the excess water charge from your upcoming month's rent. Take a reasonable stab at what your water bill should have been ($25 for 1/2 month would mean about $50 for a full month). Deduct the $50 from your $222.76 bill and say that you are holding $172.76 in escrow until he addresses the issue. Holding the excess money in escrow (yet still paying what you feel is justified - the $50) shows that you intend to pay the full bill if it is proven to be correct, but are still willing to pay what you think is normally correct. The key is to document everything very well. Document the conversations that you had with the maintenance guy. Document what the work performed by the maintenance guy. Document the phone calls that you've made to the landlord (date/time/etc). Document the phone calls that you've placed to the water company. All of this provides strong evidence that you have attempted to do everything possible to resolve the issue yourself, but need the landlord to perform as well.

If you are in college, see if your school has a landlord dispute center. The UofM has one to help students deal with unscrupulous landlords who provide off-campus housing.

[Jack The Ripped]

If it were me, I'd be tempted to document everything extremely well and then send a letter and phone call to the landlord detailing the entire problem, and that if he/she refuses to address the problem, you will deduct the excess water charge from your upcoming month's rent. Take a reasonable stab at what your water bill should have been ($25 for 1/2 month would mean about $50 for a full month). Deduct the $50 from your $222.76 bill and say that you are holding $172.76 in escrow until he addresses the issue. Holding the excess money in escrow (yet still paying what you feel is justified - the $50) shows that you intend to pay the full bill if it is proven to be correct, but are still willing to pay what you think is normally correct. The key is to document everything very well. Document the conversations that you had with the maintenance guy. Document what the work performed by the maintenance guy. Document the phone calls that you've made to the landlord (date/time/etc). Document the phone calls that you've placed to the water company. All of this provides strong evidence that you have attempted to do everything possible to resolve the issue yourself, but need the landlord to perform as well.

If you are in college, see if your school has a landlord dispute center. The UofM has one to help students deal with unscrupulous landlords who provide off-campus housing.

Very Good Advice,

Document EVERYTHING, Dates, Exact Time of Day, All People Invloved, Methond (Phone Call, Left Message, Sent Letter, Included in Rent Payment) All Topics Discussed, Etc.

You cannot be over detailed.

I went through a simular issue a few years back and actually had a recorder running and made all calls on speaker phone.

Keep us updated