So they have been building the house next door. They started in May and are almost finished (finally!) That said, we had a crazy-high water bill last month - $145. Our first bill here was $60 for over 6 weeks of service. Then $145 for 27 days of service. Andy fussed at me - "How much are you watering the grass? Why are you doing so much laundry? Where is all this water going?" So I started being really careful about our water usage. We have a high-efficiency front-loading washer, a low-volume shower head, etc. We already don't run the water while brushing our teeth, and generally I even turn the shower off while soaping up because our water heater is small and I like a hot shower. We're not here on the weekends or alternate Fridays, and when we go to Piedmont, I take any dirty laundry that we have and wash it down there. So I was not sure where all this water had gone.
Then I started noticing muddy footprints coming from the job site over our driveway toward our hose. Plus some muddy tire tracks that don't match either of our tires. Uh-huh. I had seen mud on our driveway before, but didn't think anything of it. But now I'm starting to put the pieces together. I called the builder and very sweetly told them that their contractors were NOT to step foot on my property. They said it wouldn't happen again, and I assumed that would take care of it. I talked to our realtor, and she forwarded our two water bills on to the builder, to try to get them to pay the affected one.
(Speaking of tire tracks, I think I need that guy from Vinny to analyze these tire tracks for when we have to go to small-claims court. When I saw those tracks, I just laughed hysterically thinking about it. What else could I do?)
Then I got to thinking, it was almost time to have my meter read again, and I guarantee they've been using it on this billing cycle too. So I took my bill and walked out to the meter.
Our last reading: 584. This time: 1068. Someone had used nearly 50,000 gallons of our water. I thought, I must be reading this incorrectly. So the water authority sent someone out to look at it. Sadly, my meter-reading skills are up to par, because 50,000 gallons of water with the sewer and taxes added on comes to $500.
FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
For water.
This was on Friday. Before we left, we invested $30 in hose locks. I didn't know such a thing existed, but they are really cool. It's a cap that screws onto the spigot, with a cover that padlocks on over that. You can turn the water on, but nothing happens.
50,000 gallons over 28 days is 1785 gal/day. Adjusting for the fact that we are only here 4-5 days a week, 50,000 gallons over 16 days is 3125 gal/day. Amazingly enough, since we got the locks, we're only using 100-150 gallons a day.
I called the police and wanted to fill out a report. Yes, I realize it's a bigger city and there are murders, rapes, and car thefts to investigate. But they were like, why don't you just take them to small-claims court? If someone had come onto my property and stolen my car, would that be considered a crime? But they said they didn't even know how to fill out a report. It's not property theft because we haven't paid for the water yet. It's not theft of utilities, because that generally applies to a customer who reverses a meter. I had to call three times to even get them to make a report. :::::sigh:::: I have pictures of the footprints but I would rather have, at the least, a report that says an actual policeman saw them too. But the value of the theft is less than $500. I guess it's barely worth bothering with... to them.
Now we have to wait to get the actual bill before anything else can happen. I hate waiting, with this humongous bill looming over me. It's going to be more than our Piedmont house payment. Ouch. The water authority people have been really helpful and nice about it all, though, and I don't think we're going to have to pay the bill until things are finalized with the builder one way or another.
Stupid Alabama Heritage. Stupid illegal-immigrant construction workers. Stupid me for not realizing what was going on sooner. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
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wakeful dreamer