Getting screwed by your HOS

I need help with this one. I have a house in Naples, FL and am part of an HOA. We have a management company that subs out all the neighborhood work, ie: Landscaping, lighting, power washing etc...

Here's the problem. I live in NY and go to my FL house every 8 weeks for a long weekend. At the time the house was unoccupied I received the town water bill for $575 with a usage of 65,000 gallons for the month. When the house is occupied I get a monthy bill of $50, so I obviously freaked out.

I called the management company and spoke with a girl on the phone and she said the street was being power washed at the time and they tapped into my water line. After a couple of days of back and forth, she says the powerwash company said they would not pay because it's impossible they used that much water.

After I insisted on speaking with her boss which took another week of no replies, I called again, spoke to the same girl and she said the powerwash company NEVER tapped into my line they got the water from the lake in our community. She totally did a 180 on her story.

Can I deduct the water bill from my HOA statement? I'm at a loss and need some real advice.

Thanks,
Pissed offHome Owner

It seems unliklely that lake water was used.

Having said that,

There is no evidence presented here to bolster either side.

Next time you leave your property simply shut off the water main at the meter before leaving town.

Steve's advice makes sense. I'd send the letter registered mail and copy your board of directors too.

I would assume you have your own meter if you can find someone to read your meter every few days have them do it to rule out a leak.

FrankL,

Have you thought of checking your water meter yourself to see if the reading on the meter agrees with the reading on your bill? Most bills usually give the starting reading (the last reading from the prior bill) and the ending reading for the current bill. Water use is determined by subtracting the last reading on the current bill from the last reading on the prior bill. It is possible that someone made an error when recording or entering the readings.

While it may be possible that a power washing company might have connected their equipment to your outside tap, which they had no right to do, 65,000 gallons is a lot of water. The typical garden hose of the type used to connect a power washer can only deliver about 10 gallons of water per minute, so one would have to be running the power washer continuously for 4-1/2 days (24 hours per day) to use 65,000 gallons of water.

That's a lot of water for a leak, too. A likely source could be a running toilet, but that uses only about 200 gallons a day. It would take nearly a year to use 65,000 gallons at that rate. Even a running faucet uses only about 3 gallons per minute.

I once owned a home where we had installed a swimming pool. It took several days to fill it (about 30,000 gallons) using a garden house and running the water 24 hours a day.

It really sounds more like someone made a mistake to me. It's been known to happen on some utility bills at one time or another.

I thought that in some places in Florida to combat drought utilities charge higher rates for increased usage.

Could be an error, everything is worth checking into.

On a side note, your sewer bill is usually based on your water bill. Just wait until you see your sewer bill.

Thank you sounds like a good direction to take.

Ours come as one bill. One charge for water and one charge for sewage.