[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by BuyingWhenLow

I know how to find your house. Just look for the greenest yard in Vegas!

And if there is a leak under the slab look for the house with a list to the starboard side.

[uncle_el]

Originally Posted by olecapt

Standard drill. Open the water meter box. Look for the little red flow indicator on the meter. Should be standing still if you are not using any water. If it is moving start cutting off the valves to the house and yards. If it stops you know the leak or problem is on that leg. If all valves are closed and it still shows flow you have a leak on the feed to the house...a rather common and expensive little problem. The even worse problem is an underslab leak which generally involves replumbing part or all of the house. A bad sprinkler feed can do it but normally it has to be the main feed. You can't get that much water through a sprinkler valve.

If there is nothing wrong than you have to have a knock down with the water company. They do yield on these things but they can be very difficult.

any chance it could be a leak plus whatever unpaid water bill(s) and interest there were before rhondaq bought the home?

[Vegas Joe]

Originally Posted by rhondaq

I just bought a house in las vegas 4/15/2011 and my 1st water bill was 1555 dollars. The house had 3 leaking sprinkler cylanoids but no standing water anywhere. I also have a pool but it does not have an auto-fill. How is this possible? Does anyone know what an average water bill should be? 3 bedroom 1306 sq ft, 3 residents??

Something is not right with that. You could have a pool the size of Mandalay Bay and not get a bill that high!

[lyra33]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

And if there is a leak under the slab look for the house with a list to the starboard side.

LOL...you are on a roll today!

[delgadobb]

Originally Posted by uncle_el

any chance it could be a leak plus whatever unpaid water bill(s) and interest there were before rhondaq bought the home?

+1. That's what I'm thinking.

When I first moved to Chicago, I found a 700 sf apartment close to Wrigley Field. It wasn't even cold yet & the first heat bill comes - over $1000. Huh?

Peoples Gas, a corrupt bully of a company, insisted the bill was correct but couldn't prove someone came out to read the meter when I opened the account (they used an 'estimated' number). When I asked my landlord, I was told $30-40 was average that time of year. After a *lot* of digging, I learned that the previous tenant had skipped on my landlord & Peoples Gas tried to foot me with the bill. I got promises from one part of Peoples Gas that it would be resolved, then the collections/credit dept would start the whole mess a 2nd/3rd/4th time. Eventually, I had to take it to the Illinois Commerce Commission & threaten to sue them before they backed off - even then they tried to damage my credit! By the time it was resolved, we were able to show a progression of usage for a few months - the real bill would likely have been in the $25-30 range (I eventually settled for a little over that just to be done with it.) Basically, I was on the 'guilty until proven innocent' plan.

In my case, I prevailed but a lot of persistence & headache was involved. Something similar may have happened in your case. Did you have the water company read the meter when you took possession of the house? A leak may have caused $100-200 worth of water waste, but I'd expect serious flooding and/or foundation problems if you used as much water as quickly as they claim. My $.02, hope it helps.

[Vegas Joe]

Originally Posted by delgadobb

+1. That's what I'm thinking.

When I first moved to Chicago, I found a 700 sf apartment close to Wrigley Field. It wasn't even cold yet & the first heat bill comes - over $1000. Huh?

Peoples Gas, a corrupt bully of a company, insisted the bill was correct but couldn't prove someone came out to read the meter when I opened the account (they used an 'estimated' number). When I asked my landlord, I was told $30-40 was average that time of year. After a *lot* of digging, I learned that the previous tenant had skipped on my landlord & Peoples Gas tried to foot me with the bill. I got promises from one part of Peoples Gas that it would be resolved, then the collections/credit dept would start the whole mess a 2nd/3rd/4th time. Eventually, I had to take it to the Illinois Commerce Commission & threaten to sue them before they backed off - even then they tried to damage my credit! By the time it was resolved, we were able to show a progression of usage for a few months - the real bill would likely have been in the $25-30 range (I eventually settled for a little over that just to be done with it.) Basically, I was on the 'guilty until proven innocent' plan.

In my case, I prevailed but a lot of persistence & headache was involved. Something similar may have happened in your case. Did you have the water company read the meter when you took possession of the house? A leak may have caused $100-200 worth of water waste, but I'd expect serious flooding and/or foundation problems if you used as much water as quickly as they claim. My $.02, hope it helps.

"Peoples Gas"??? Is that like "Peoples Republic"?? That is what happens when you live under Communism! I thought peoples gas meant somebody farted!

[Tantamount]

Originally Posted by Vegas Joe

"Peoples Gas"??? Is that like "Peoples Republic"?? That is what happens when you live under Communism! I thought peoples gas meant somebody farted!

Hahaha! Good one!

[gvc8]

Originally Posted by MediocreButArrogant

I had a sprinkler valve fail to close (because it was on a drip, but it wasn't a low flow valve) and it leaked about 1.5 gpm for just over two weeks. That added up to 53,000 gallons of water (would fill your average 15k gallon pool three and a half times), and my water bill was about $200.

A leak as big as yours should be spinning the little triangle on the meter (not the needle) like crazy. First thing you should do is confirm the leak, and its magnitude. Is your yard large enough to hide a 330k gallon per month leak?

By the way, the word is "solenoid", not "cylanoid".

agreed...for that kind of bill you would probably see some sort of gusher, pool of water, or your pool would be empty without using an autofill. check the main water shutoff at the sidewalk. there has to be a main line break somewhere outside your house.

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by gvc8

agreed...for that kind of bill you would probably see some sort of gusher, pool of water, or your pool would be empty without using an autofill. check the main water shutoff at the sidewalk. there has to be a main line break somewhere outside your house.

OR more probably, a screwup by our ESTEEMED [low] Water Company.

[olecapt]

One other message here. You should also figure out what is going on before you fix anything.

The trouble here is LVVWD will now claim the water was being lost through the bad sprinklers. That is very unlikely but you have no evidence. So what you need to do, particularly with this big a bill, is figure out what is going on before repairing.

Just watch the meter for an hour. How much water was moving? If nothing is happening get the water company out to check the meter and verify that nothing is going on. You might also check it daily for a week or so and see what the usage actually is. You are trying to make a case that it did not happen and somebody got a number wrong.

Once you fix things the water company just presumes that you fixed the problem. And that it was your problem. They may still be nice and abate the bill somewhat but they will insist it is all your fault.

So CYA...