DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Faulty meters across Daytona Beach are leading to high water bills for homeowners. Many of those residents reached out to us after saying they got nowhere with the city.
A city spokesperson told Eyewitness News that the city is in the process of replacing 15,000 meters because they’ve been faulty for a while and that bills have been estimated.
Marti Stewart showed us a stack of water bills from the city of Daytona Beach, and her monthly rate tripled, even though she wasn’t living in her home.
“The house was vacant from June until right now, they just moved in a couple weeks ago and they’ve been charging me 150, 160, 170 dollars each month even though the place was vacant,” said Stewart.
Ada Sanchez also brought us her water bills.
“My bills were 20 to 30 dollars, not 91,” said Ada Sanchez.
Both women’s homes are in different parts of the city but the answer they were given from the water department was almost identical.
“They told me they’ve been estimating my bill since I moved in,” said Sanchez.
“They said the transmitter for the things are broken and I said so how are you figuring out my bill and they said we’re just averaging what the bill was for the years prior and I said well I didn’t live here in the years prior,” said Stewart.
We asked the city how long the water department has been estimating bills, how many meters are faulty, and why residents are responsible for paying the difference.
A spokesperson said older meters often report water usage inaccurately, so some customers could notice a change in their water bills, and that “the city’s policy is not to charge water customers for water previously used, but not paid for, due to estimated bills or faulty meters. However, the water customers’ estimated bill might be lower than their current usage, so their bill may be higher going forward.”
The spokesperson also said:
Some meters have been faulty for a while. There was an issue with the electrical components, and supply issues prevented the delivery of replacement meters. Affected meters were estimated until the faulty components were replaced.
Some of the residents we talked to have been told their meter wasn’t replaced yet but their bills have still gone up. We are asking the city why that might be happening.
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