Waterloo family shocked by $3,500 water bill

A delay in notifying the family of high usage added thousands to bill

WATERLOO — Ashley Congi knew her water bill would be more than normal, but she didn’t expect it to be more than $3,500.

“(My husband) was doing a bunch of landscaping work,” said Congi of expecting a higher amount. But the bill she received was way outside of her expectations.

“I didn’t even want to open it because I knew it was going to be big,” said Congi.

On Sept. 17, the bill she received, dated from June 22 to Aug. 24, was for $3,536.38.

After having a number of plumbers come to inspect the property, it was determined that the extra charges likely stemmed from a faulty water softener. Congi said she accepts the fact that her household, a semi attached in north Waterloo, used the water. But what irks her is the timeline.

On Sept. 13, one day after the date of the bill sent out by the city, the family received a letter from the city indicating that their water usage was higher than normal.

“The City of Waterloo has recently taken a reading at this address and found your consumption over the last two months to be higher than your normal usage. Your next water bill that you receive from the City of Waterloo will reflect this high reading,” read part of the letter. The letter did not go into specifics about how much was used.

Five days later, on Sept. 18, she received the bill.

Congi later found out that a city-hired contractor came to read the meter on Aug. 24, noticing that it was high. On Sept. 6, it was read again to verify the high reading.

That timeline means there was a lag of about 20 days between the first reading of abnormally high usage to the family actually being notified. At about $59 per day in costs, those 20 days could have saved the family as much as $1,178 if they were able to fix the problem immediately.

“I expected them to tell me the moment they noticed it was wrong and they didn’t,” said Congi.

Congi’s husband, Franco, called the city to complain about the bill and state their case. They said the city told them the only thing they could do was put the family on a payment plan where they would pay an extra $300 per month until it was all paid off.

Congi said she’s OK with paying for some of the bill, but because she was notified so long after it was first discovered, she believes the city should reverse at least some of the charges.

The total water usage for the month was 845 cubic metres, equalling 845,000 litres. The family of three’s normal water usage is about 20 cubic metres, equalling 2,000 litres.

According to the City of Waterloo, the lag time between initial reading and notification of the customer is normal at about two or three weeks.

After the meter is read by the contractor, there is typically a lag of about three or four days before it makes it to the billing department. Once a high-consumption case is flagged, the contractor is sent to the location again to verify the high reading. From there, if it is verified, a city employee is sent to the address to drop off a letter stating that water usage is high and to attempt to make contact with the customer.

In this case, said Todd Chapman, manager of programs, water services at the city, there was no phone number on file to contact the customer, so no contact was made. If there was a phone number on file, the severity of the usage could have been discussed.

Chapman said in fairness to the rest of the ratepayers, refunds are not issued.

Chapman said in the near future, the city will be deciding on whether or not to install an advanced infrastructure system that provides “near real-time consumption reads” on all homes.