Water Meter Broken: How do I go about fixing this?

J

JohnJuniorV3

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Messages
1,525
Reaction score
166
Hi everyone,

Today I received an exceptionally high water bill of R4k for 3 of us living in a household, being concerned I looked at the bill and saw that it is only an estimate. I then when and looked at my meter which had a reading of 9634 and my current estimate reading is around 9980.

Shocked I went and checked through my bills and found that the last actual reading was done in July of 2020 with a reading of 9634.

Seems like my meter is broken. How do I go about fixing this situation now? I am going to report the faulty meter to Johannesburg Water tomorrow, but what about the last few months of bills and how do they prove my usage? What am I liable for?
 
JohnJuniorV3 said:
Hi everyone,

Today I received an exceptionally high water bill of R4k for 3 of us living in a household, being concerned I looked at the bill and saw that it is only an estimate. I then when and looked at my meter which had a reading of 9634 and my current estimate reading is around 9980.

Shocked I went and checked through my bills and found that the last actual reading was done in July of 2020 with a reading of 9634.

Seems like my meter is broken. How do I go about fixing this situation now? I am going to report the faulty meter to Johannesburg Water tomorrow, but what about the last few months of bills and how do they prove my usage? What am I liable for?
Click to expand...
Go to the council and lodge a formal complaint. They will sort out.
 
Don't think your meter broken , municipality just dont read your meter , you need to get actual reading to them , here in port Elizabeth we can submit it via municipal web page .

Your meter easy accessible to be read ?
 
Have you checked your meter and seen what it's reading.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jah
JohnJuniorV3 said:
Hi everyone,

Today I received an exceptionally high water bill of R4k for 3 of us living in a household, being concerned I looked at the bill and saw that it is only an estimate. I then when and looked at my meter which had a reading of 9634 and my current estimate reading is around 9980.

Shocked I went and checked through my bills and found that the last actual reading was done in July of 2020 with a reading of 9634.

Seems like my meter is broken. How do I go about fixing this situation now? I am going to report the faulty meter to Johannesburg Water tomorrow, but what about the last few months of bills and how do they prove my usage? What am I liable for?
Click to expand...
Report to the Council immediately. That will maybe hopefully trigger a repair process.
In the meantime, take a reading on the meter, open a tap say in the bath and run the bath full. And again take a reading. If it has not moved, then the meter is faulty. Look at ALL the digits not just the few used to bill you.

Go back in your records at least one year to try and establish what your monthly usage is because you will need that value in the negotiations with the council.
Then in future do what most of us do, we submit our own readings to the council every month, or, at least monitor the readings on a monthly basis.
 
Geoff.D said:
Report to the Council immediately. That will maybe hopefully trigger a repair process.
In the meantime, take a reading on the meter, open a tap say in the bath and run the bath full. And again take a reading. If it has not moved, then the meter is faulty. Look at ALL the digits not just the few used to bill you.

Go back in your records at least one year to try and establish what your monthly usage is because you will need that value in the negotiations with the council.
Then in future do what most of us do, we submit our own readings to the council every month, or, at least monitor the readings on a monthly basis.
Click to expand...
I reported it this morning. The call centre didn’t seem to know what to do with the situation, but hopefully they will send someone out to fix it lol.

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely be submitting my own readings each month in the future.
 
Lupus said:
Have you checked your meter and seen what it's reading.
Click to expand...
It hasn’t moved since yesterday. Actually since July according to my last actual reading done by the council.
I wonder what will happen with my account, I can’t afford the water bill this month and they have no way of proving how much I used. It’s going to be interesting…
 
Apologies to revive the thread.

COJ eventually came and replaced my water meter, took the old meter and "corrected" my account.

According to them, when they removed the water meter they had a much higher "actual" reading than the one it has been stuck on for the previous months. I've now been slapped with a R9k bill.

I truly can't get a hold of the situation, anyone can provide some advice?
 
What your average monthly water bill before it was "zero"
 
thehuman said:
What your average monthly water bill before it was "zero"
Click to expand...
They were all estimates since the last actual reading of which the meter has been stuck on since July 2020. They have ranged, sometimes being 6-10k. When the meter was still working my average bill was around 2.5k.
 
Apply for a meter reading, query the fact that the reading hasn't been done, no council can bill on a whim, they must figure out how to sort it out. In the mean time, raise a complaint with the finance department for the water bill to be zeroed.
 
JohnJuniorV3 said:
They were all estimates since the last actual reading of which the meter has been stuck on since July 2020. They have ranged, sometimes being 6-10k. When the meter was still working my average bill was around 2.5k.
Click to expand...
Wait so you are averaging out at 2.5k a month, but for a year you've only been paying the estimate of maybe R300?
Now you're moaning that you owe more cause the estimates were actually wrong?
If you'd been paying your normal amount it would be 30k in a year, but what you've been paying with the estimate is almost 90% less??
 
Lupus said:
Wait so you are averaging out at 2.5k a month, but for a year you've only been paying the estimate of maybe R300?
Now you're moaning that you owe more cause the estimates were actually wrong?
If you'd been paying your normal amount it would be 30k in a year, but what you've been paying with the estimate is almost 90% less??
Click to expand...
No,

I have been paying the full average or estimate amounts which has been breaking my bank account.

I think I've explained this quite badly. Pretty much my bill each month sky rocketed from 2.5k to up to as much as 10k each month, but that is because they haven't been doing actual readings. Now when they have done an actual reading its not even a real reading as my meter was actually broken.

So everything has been thumb sucked and my average or estimated bills are insanely high.
 
JohnJuniorV3 said:
No,

I have been paying the full average or estimate amounts which has been breaking my bank account.

I think I've explained this quite badly. Pretty much my bill each month sky rocketed from 2.5k to up to as much as 10k each month, but that is because they haven't been doing actual readings. Now when they have done an actual reading its not even a real reading as my meter was actually broken.

So everything has been thumb sucked and my average or estimated bills are insanely high.
Click to expand...
Straight up lodge a dispute and demand they provide the evidence for their new billed figure...
 
Good luck...long story short...My meter didnt work..was reported...FA done..
Had to fork out over R30k to clear the bill to get the house paperwork...
Still had to pay another bunch of thieves R6k odd for a new meter as Mogale Shitty didnt have any...They also said they would sort out the bill...they didnt...I think this company was in colusion with Mogale Shitty.

I was a single guy living on my own and they were charging me R1000 per month until I managed to get that meter sorted out....Meanwhile at the taxi rank round the corner from me the tapsrun 24/7...people come with water tankers from miles around to get free water....My water bill is around R80 or so a month....Not R1000 per month....

My biggest regret....Buying property and having to deal withg brain damaged employees at Mogale Shitty...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X