Baltimore residents upset over soaring water bills (North Beach: sales, 2014)

[feck]

Baltimore residents upset over soaring water bills | Maryland News - WBAL Home


Thank you Councilman Jim Kraft for holding a meeting to address the 3 ton Woolly Mammoth in the room: House seizure for non-payment of water bills
(even when the meters are at fault).

Homeowners in Baltimore City should not bury their heads in the proverbial sand with regards to this. They are all a faulty meter away from having their
houses taken away if they cannot pay.


"One Baltimore City councilman calls it the number one complaint from residents."

"The topic was the focus of a hearing Wednesday at City Hall. Residents pushed lawmakers for answers to find out how they are being charged water bills that in some cases were as high as $2,600.
Kimberly Armstrong is one of those residents. The east Baltimore resident recently received a $1,400 water bill."


"I can't pay a $1,400 water bill," Armstrong said. "Not for water."
Armstrong later got another bill for $2,500. Then the city told her there was a big problem with the new high-tech water meter at her house.


"You can see where it's not registering, completely blank," Armstrong said.The city's Department of Public Works has installed Balti-meters in 94 percent of homes, but Councilman Jim Kraft said skyrocketing water bills has since become the No. 1 complaint coming into City Hall.



"And when the meters changed over I got a $1,000 bill, and I said 'I can't pay a $1,000 bill," resident Jacqueline Robarge said.


Kraft brought DPW into the City Council Wednesday as he held an investigative hearing.
DPW data shows inspections during meter installations showed problems 1 percent of the time and an even smaller percentage for reported leaks.


"When you understand that they have put in 400,000 new meters and that they're not billing on a regular cycle, you can understand how this happens," Kraft said. "The question is, 'Do they have enough people providing service for folks who have these problems so they can correct them?'"


Armstrong says she is still trying to rectify her high bills with the city. In the meantime, because she has not paid the bills, the city has put her house up for tax sale.


"I have been in my home for 20 years," she said. "I don't want to lose my house to a tax sale and for a water bill that I haven't had a chance to refute, dispute, or even negotiate (the bill)."

[North Beach Person]

If these houses are up for tax sale then the owners haven't paid the water bill for two years.

[feck]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

If these houses are up for tax sale then the owners haven't paid the water bill for two years.

The point is that the Water Dept. acknowledged that Ms. Armstrong
bill was incorrectly metered but she was not allowed redress.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by feck

The point is that the Water Dept. acknowledged that Ms. Armstrong
bill was incorrectly metered but she was not allowed redress.

No, the point is that she hasn't paid any water bill for two years if the house is going to tax sale. She should have paid her bill 6 quarters ago. She complains that she got a $1400 bill, that's probably the cumulative total since her last payment, 6 or more quarters ago.


I find it fascinating that hundreds of water authorities across the US (public and private) are using these same meters and are having almost zero issues.


In 99.99999999999999999999999999999999% of the time when a meter misreads water use it misreads in the favor of the consumer.


This is also likely related to the story a few months ago where they were finally going to start shutting water service off to people who hadn't paid a bill in years.

[james777]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

I find it fascinating that hundreds of water authorities across the US (public and private) are using these same meters and are having almost zero issues.

Dysfunctional is the norm for Baltimore City government.

[feck]

"

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

No, the point is that she hasn't paid any water bill for two years if the house is going to tax sale. She should have paid her bill 6 quarters ago. She complains that she got a $1400 bill, that's probably the cumulative total since her last payment, 6 or more quarters ago."

How do you know this? Are you an official of the water dept (or city government)?


"I find it fascinating that hundreds of water authorities across the US (public and private) are using these same meters and are having almost zero issues."

Really?

Skyrocketing water bills mystify, anger residents - CNN.com


"In 99.99999999999999999999999999999999% of the time when a meter misreads water use it misreads in the favor of the consumer."

Link?


This is also likely related to the story a few months ago where they were finally going to start shutting water service off to people who hadn't paid a bill in years.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by feck

"

Did you read your link where 1% of the bad readings were due to the meters themselves and the rest were either from incorrect installation or, most of them, the customers themselves having leaks or otherwise using more water than they realized? As a note, remote readers are being used in more places than Atlanta and Baltimore.


As far as a link goes, I'm not going to scan a couple hundred pages of meter specs I have laying around which, if you understand them, show how meters are designed to non-read when they fail.


Now, could Baltimore be having a software problem in the meter reading program? Yes.


You still haven't addressed the fact that if these properties are being put up for tax sale then a water bill hasn't been paid since about July of 2014. Two years non-payment is the period for tax sales in Maryland.

[picardlx]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

No, the point is that she hasn't paid any water bill for two years if the house is going to tax sale. She should have paid her bill 6 quarters ago. She complains that she got a $1400 bill, that's probably the cumulative total since her last payment, 6 or more quarters ago.


I find it fascinating that hundreds of water authorities across the US (public and private) are using these same meters and are having almost zero issues.


In 99.99999999999999999999999999999999% of the time when a meter misreads water use it misreads in the favor of the consumer.


This is also likely related to the story a few months ago where they were finally going to start shutting water service off to people who hadn't paid a bill in years.

What peer reviewed study produced that number with such accuracy?

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by picardlx

What peer reviewed study produced that number with such accuracy?

Mine. I've been dealing with water meter/billing issues for the last 20 years. I realize that you guys will believe what you want but the reality on the ground is that water meters, and gas meters for that matter, will fail in the customers favor almost 100% of the time (there's rarely an outlier the other way but I'll still say almost). That's the way they're designed.


That includes the old mechanical meters as well as the new remote read ones. A couple of the companies have had software problems with the remotes giving bad readings but even the majority of those have been in the customer's favor.


And, as I've said a couple times, those people going to tax sale over unpaid water bills haven't paid one in nearly two years. They should have been shut off a year ago.

[feck]

Unpaid Corporate Bills Weigh Heavily on Baltimore's Looming Water Shutoffs

"BROADWATER: Yeah. So several years ago, I started researching this issue some, and we found out that many large businesses, nonprofits, and even government offices owed very large water bills. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars. The largest account is about $7 million owed by RG Steel, which is the Bethlehem Steel plant in Baltimore County. And they were allowed for years and years and years to run up their water bill, while still getting their water service, until they finally filed for bankruptcy."


So it is okay for big corporations to be delinquent for more than two years
but average homeowners get punished harshly?

This is proof positive that water billing is a scheme foisted on vulnerable
citizens by an essentially corrupt city goverment.

WHEN Catherine Pugh take office later this year (Alan Walden (ponderings)
her Republican opponent will not present a viable threat) if she does not
address water billing as well as do a fresh audit from top
to bottom then I am convinced it will be business as usual.