We were away from our property for 45 days. When we came back we found out the Cocoa Fl water department had taken out 706 dollars out of our account and said we had used 109,000 gallons of water. I explained that we were gone the water was cut off by a intake value and we have a 6ft locked fence and out next door neighbor was watching the place. They have admitted we have no leak and gave about 300 dollars back and changed out the meter. They say the old meter was not bad and they will not give anymore money back. They can give no reasonale explanation of how the water could have flowed through the meter. The meter reader that came out explained the meter is like a little computer and as such it can give a faulty reading and that it wasn't right and we should fight it. He is the only one who has talked to us, none of the bosses will talk to us in person. They say they have never heard of a meter reading faulty and then reading OK again. I think I will talk to a lawyer. What do you think my options are?

You need to make sure that there is no hidden leak in your home. A leak that may be underground or under the floor of your home should have been found by the water company when they came out to look at the meter. If there is a leak, you will continue to leak water and have high water bills. Make sure that all of your fixtures in the house do not leal, and then go out and check the meter to make sure that it is not showing a great deal of water being used. If it is, you have a hidden leak, and will need to get it fixed.

You said the they admitted that there were no leaks but did you check for a hidden leak yourself?
Just in case you haven't here's how to do it.
To check for a hidden leak go out to the water meter, look for the little hand below the read out. With all your fixtures shut off you should not see the little hand moving. The faster it moves the bigger the leak. On a pump system the gauge should not fall with every thing off and the pump up to pressure and not running. Before I did anything I would check all your toilets, a small leak running 24/7 can run your water bill sky high. I don't know what kind of piping you have in your house or if your built on a slab. We check differently for houses built on slabs. If you have a older home, 1930/75, you may have galvainzed iron pipe leading to the house from your meter or pump. If it's leaking don't even bother to dig it up. Run a new service line out of sch.#40 PVC. My water meter here in Sarasota went bad and gave me a high reading. I demanded they replace it and check the old meter about. It was found fault. More questions? I'm as close as a click. Good luck and thank you for rating my reply.

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Originally Posted by unitedleak

You need to make sure that there is no hidden leak in your home. A leak that may be underground or under the floor of your home should have been found by the water company when they came out to look at the meter. If there is a leak, you will continue to leak water and have high water bills. Make sure that all of your fixtures in the house do not leal, and then go out and check the meter to make sure that it is not showing a great deal of water being used. If it is, you have a hidden leak, and will need to get it fixed. United Leak Detection Water Leak Blog

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As I said there is no leak and the water company agrees there is no leak. We have turned off the water the same way and were gone for 1 week and the meter did not move even .01. With no water turned on in the house the meter does not move at all. Garygg

Well, 109,000 gallons over 45 days is about 1.6 gallons every minute you were gone. Even if something nefarious were going on, that would be a challenge. It sounds like something simple, yet unfortunate, like a toilet left to run, or a hose left on etc. for the entirely of your trip. Without a leak, running constantly, there is little alternative. It is certainly less than a faucet left on all the way, but considerably more than a steady drip. There is often little variability in the meters, but I would still ask the water company to have yours tested. They do run into problems from time to time, and we are hopefully yours is one of those.

If you have no leak and the water company agrees then the only thing left is a faulty water meter.
It should have been replaced by now. What's the hold up? Let me know, Tom

He has had the meter changed out already and is looking for a reason for the 45 days they were gone.

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Originally Posted by unitedleak

He has had the meter changed out already and is looking for a reason for the 45 days they were gone.

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They have changed out the meter but won't admit that the old one could have had a faulty reading. For the last 20 years our reading has been 2 to 6000 gallons a month and the same since we have come back. They try and say they never heard of a meter doing that even though the I net has stories from up in N.C. about the same thing. They kept saying the meters are good until the local TV stations forced them to admit there was something wrong.

Are we looking at a court case here? Regards, Tom

I'm going through same thing 10 years in the same place with 200 gal day avg. Spiked for 3 month to 600 a day, I shut water main off for 8 hours. Meter still read 300 gal.
Replaced meter and it went back to 200 gal a day. They say there must have been a leak but with the main shut off, meter should never had a reading.
Had two employees from the borough witness meter spinning but they now don't remember what they saw.I have an electric Severn Trent meter, they tested it and said it was accurate. In process of getting a lawyer.

Hi schmidtmatt and Welcome to The Plumbing Page. At AskMeHelpDesk.com. You're responding to a 1 year old dead thread so I gave you one of your own. Look in then upper left hand corner of the first post form the date in the first post before you post, Thanks,

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I shut water main off for 8 hours. Meter still read 300 gal.

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At what point did you shut the meter off at. The meter shut off or the house shutoff?

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They say there must have been a leak but with the main shut off, meter should never had a reading.

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Once more, It depends upon just where you shut it off at. If you shut it off at the house and the meter still ran then one of two things.
1. You have a hidden leak in the service line **OR**
2. You have a faulty meter. Sounds like door #2 to me.
But I still got to know where you shut it off at before I can give any sort of a answer. Back to you, Tom

I shut the water off at the main in the house 6 inches above the meter itself.

Then there is no curb meter and service line to the house. Like I said. You had a faulty meter.

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They say the old meter was not bad

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SAY WHAT? If the old one wasn't bad then why replace it and then give you a rebate? Doesn't make sense.
I figure if it doesn't make sense to me it won't make sense to a judge. Is it worth going to court to get the full amount back? Let me know, Tom

I will keep you updated, I tried to explain this at borough meeting last night. All I got was "if we do this for you then everyone else will also want this."

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All I got was "if we do this for you then everyone else will also want this.

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Unbelievable!!
What we have here is a three ring circus and you're attempting to deal with the clowns. If this were my call I'd take the fools to court. You have facts and logic on your side and all they have is hot air. Good luck, Tom