Clay County girl says $900 water invoice equal to filling 6 swimming swimming pools nonetheless can’t be defined

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – A Clay County girl says she remains to be looking for solutions after being charged practically $900 by the Clay County Utility Authority throughout a single billing cycle.

Alexis Quiva advised News4JAX she was billed for about 95,000 gallons of water, which is sufficient to fill roughly six average-sized swimming swimming pools.

“I was freaking out. I was not expecting that,” Quiva stated.

Quiva stated she has handled plumbing leaks earlier than, however nothing near this quantity.

“I’ve had a leak here before previously, and it was about $200, but $900, I thought I was filling up someone’s swimming pool,” she stated.

According to the utility invoice, Quiva’s dwelling used about 95,000 gallons of water. By comparability, the common residential swimming pool holds about 17,000 gallons.

Quiva stated she employed a number of plumbers to examine the property, however neither discovered a transparent clarification for the unusually excessive utilization.

“The first plumber said that he saw no signs of a leak,” Quiva stated. “The second plumber, he went ahead and gutted my toilets. He said that the flappers on my toilets looked good. So he said it was very unlikely that that was the cause of it.”

As she disputed the invoice with the utility authority, Quiva stated her water service was ultimately shut off, forcing her to pay the steadiness to revive service.

“Truthfully, it’s put us behind our bills,” she stated.

In a press release to News4JAX, the utility authority stated meter knowledge confirmed “a steady flow of water over several days,” which officers say explains how utilization reached practically 95,000 gallons throughout a single billing cycle.

The authority stated the information mirrored steady water consumption and was not the results of a meter error or incorrect studying.

But plumbing officers who reviewed the case disagreed with the utility’s conclusion.

One plumbing official wrote that “it is unreasonable to hold the customer responsible for this charge without further investigation.”

The plumber who inspected the property acknowledged there have been “no visible leaks anywhere on the property” and stated that with a water invoice that giant, “it would have been noticeable through continuous running water, which was not observed.”

Quiva stated nobody from the utility authority bodily inspected her property or meter.

Despite the utility authority’s clarification, Quiva stated she nonetheless believes the invoice was improper. She additionally has issues that she didn’t obtain an alert about excessive utilization.

“Still, to this day, I still don’t know what caused it,” she stated.

Quiva stated she now worries it may occur once more.

“The most I can do is just hope that it doesn’t happen again,” she stated. “I had to ask one of the representatives what direction would I take if this were to happen again and the most she said that we could do is hope.”

The utility authority stated after Quiva submitted documentation exhibiting plumbing repairs had been made, the company utilized a $400 adjustment to the account underneath its leak adjustment coverage.

However, as a result of Quiva’s water service had already been disconnected, she was additionally charged a $300 reconnection charge. In whole, she stated she nonetheless paid about $800 for her April water invoice.

In a press release, a spokesperson for the utility stated, “Notifications of surprising water use can be found inside the buyer’s on-line account and don’t require any sign-up. A visual notification banner seems on the account dashboard when prospects log in, indicating elevated or steady water use.

Email or textual content notifications are elective, as these require buyer consent. Customers can join these alerts by logging into their on-line account portal, navigating to the Smart Meters part, and enabling their most popular alert settings.

We perceive that prime payments might be regarding, and we encourage prospects to contact us as quickly as they discover uncommon utilization so we are able to help in reviewing their account and figuring out potential causes.”