CONTRIBUTED BY KANDY
One of our readers who lives off base has been having a big problem with one of her utility bills. Her water bill for two months is over 50,000 yen. That's over $500! After calculating the amount of water from 1m3(cubic meter)=264.17 u.s. gallons our friend came to the conclusion that there is NO WAY her family, (husband, baby and herself) could have used 55,476.12 u.s. gallons of water. She even had someone come and check the meter, pipes, and for any possible leaks. Has anyone had this situation and what did you do to fight it? Any advice?
if i’m not mistaken you can go to the base housing office on kadena and they can offer you some assistance. also talking to your leasing office may help.
yeah, thats where we are at right now. the water company and our housing agency aren’t really working with us and i haven’t heard from kadena yet. so far i think we’ll have to just pay the bill. i dont know how else i can fight this.
We had the same thing happen to us when we lived off base, we tried and tried to fight it! When they said “oh no, it doesn’t look like there is a leak”, we were just left with that. Like “sorry, it’s not our problem”. There HAS to be a way to fight this! Call me a pessimist, but this appears to be extortion. (We can’t prove you used the water but you can’t prove you didn’t-kind of thing) I really hope you get this resolved. I would also recommend the off base housing reps on kadena and see what they can do. Tell them you want daily printouts to see when the water was used…good luck…
Have you tried going to the JAG? While they can’t represent you in court, they can give you free legal advice. Once, when we had a real estate dispute, we mentioned that we were consulting a lawyer and the people we had a conflict with freaked out and kept their end of the contract (which I’m sure they would not have done if they hadn’t felt threatened).
Please keep us updated on whether or not you’re able to get this resolved. Would you mind sharing the name of the housing/rental company that is giving you such a hard time? I’m sure those of us PCSing soon would sure like to avoid them.
Thanks and good luck!
We had that happen to us. The first bill $500+ the second $800+ our landlord took care of it for us. A water pipe had burst under the house so they had to re-route the plumbing to fix it. The flooring was concrete. No wonder I had so many mold problems in that place. Best of luck, I really do feel for you!
1st thing, pay the bill. It would be rude to argue in the American manner. I’m not saying bend over and take it though.
Consult the housing agency about past water bills for this residence. They can check with the water office to see how much the last tennants were consuming as well. If their bills were similar it may not help, but if they were way lower it would be a sign that perhaps something was up.
2nd thing, Look for possible leaks.
Do you have a booster pump that runs when you use the water (most houses do)? If so, do you hear it running all of the time? If so, start closing off valves to one item at a time, start with toilets, then sinks and see if the pump stops (wait a few minutes after closing each vavle). If it stops, then you found the problem.
Our toilet had a small leak for over a year at one of the seals, but no water was leaking outside. The pump would run constantly which drove up our electric and water bills, but not as high as yours. If you find the leak, report it immediately to the housing office, then approach them again with the past bills.
Our friend had the same problem…$500 water bill. He did not pay the bill but talked to the housing agency right away. The culprit – a leaking pipe(just like Cat’s (see comment above). He didn’t have to pay for it, and the agency had the problem fixed.
So, you shouldn’t be liable for that huge water bill. $500 is NOT a normal water bill for a month. You can also try talking to the housing agency – ummm, not sure if they can and would do anything though.
We had a similar problem. Our toilet was running (most of the day-like it was being constantly being flushed) while I was out an about. Have them check your toilet pipes as well as laundry. Something could be draining- and you don’t even hear it. Good luck!
Hi! i live off base, and my usual water bill is about $60. $500 is absolutely absurd! you’ve got to have some sort of leak! I thought I had a gas leak, as my bill has been going up, up, up each month, but i think that it’s from the water heater taking more energy to heat the freezing cold water. Remember, to keep your bills low:
-electricity is cheaper early in the mornings, on saturdays and sundays, so go to church and stay home cleaning and doing laundry!
-placing a bottle of water in the tank of your toilet will save on water waste!
Good luck with your bills!
I live off base with my husband, we were paying 1900/month for water for the 1st 4 months, then one month, his parents came to visit for 10 days. (They take long showers (30 minutes or more) and our bill went up to 4100 yen for that month. Now it’s back to normal. So $500 is wrong, you prob do have a leak, it doesn’t matter. I think the idea about checking the prior renter’s water bill is a good one, but I would go back to Kadena and pester them to help. That’s their job, from what I understood from the housing brief is that a main part of why they are there is to make sure that we are treated equitably and fairly by the landlords out in town. I wouldn’t give up, because you are going to get a water bill every month and I don’t know anyone who can afford $500/month on water.
I wonder…can we “ICE” the housing office on their service just as we can “ICE” all other places on base?
Just like Theresa, I attended that briefing and remembered them saying all these things about them making sure we are treated fairly by the landlords. From what I understood at that briefing, they’re supposed to be sort of our advocate. But when you call them up with an issue, they are quick to say that they can’t really do anything.
Just to give an idea of how much water should cost for the “average family” off base and not to scare off anyone thinking about living off base these are our stats:
Most recent water bill:
Y7500=around $75.00
Its a little high because of a toilet leak.
Family of four:
1)Hygiene: Four showers a day, regular hand washing, toilet flushing, teeth brushing, etc.
2)Cleaning: Average: 2 large loads of laundry a day. No dishwasher, meaning washing a sinkful of dishes at least once a day.
3) Misc: A slow but steady toilet leak since early December. (Having it fixed soon.)
So a $500 water bill is BOGUS.
I’m going to call around today to see what else can be done.
I have had the issue with the gas bill. The agency said they made a mistake and put in the computer that we had paid but in actual fact we hadn’t. This is from July 2008. WTF. I basically told them I am not paying it. It’s their mistake. I don’t even remember last month let along 6 mths ago. The agency is sheisty. This is the 2nd time we have had an issue like this.
Well, they didn’t bother to call me back to discuss like they said they would, they just forwarded the damn bill to GI Bill pay. Well, unfortunately for them, they choose the wrong day to mess with me and I let them have it! Now they are fronting the bill. Which, they should have done in the first place.
Your housing agency if they are decent should be sending someone out to check your meter and your house for leaks. You can also see all the old meters at the water department of your local town offices. Don’t give up, but don’t assume that you are getting ripped off just because you are American…it could be that there is a leak they just dont know about and as soon as it can be determined, they can fix it. I keep all my utility receipts and the little meter reads they put in my mailbox so if you do that, you might be able to show that you don’t normally use that much water. 500 dollars worth of water is a ton of water…our bill is not usually over 10 bucks. In our old house, sometimes the tank on the roof would not shut off like it should and water would leak down the side of the building and into the street….the agency came right out to fix it any time it did that. One night, I heard water running like crazy around 11pm and I went outside. It was my Japanese neighbors water tank…I had to knock on his door and do some sign language along with my broken Japanese so he would know what I was talking about but I bet I saved him a bundle in water bills.
I second the suggestion about inquiring into the bills paid by your home’s previous occupants. Another suggestion is to inquire with your neighbors how much they are paying (to see if bills are comparable). My cousin had a similar issue with gas bills in the US and inquired into prior bills for her unit AND asked her neighbor about his bills. She challenged the bills, a leak was found and the repairs were made. Not only did my cousin get money back for the amount she was overcharged, she actually calculated the TAXES on the amount overcharged, and she got that back too (yep, she is a CPA)!
that is exactly where we are at right now i’m just too frustrated with my housing angency to even speak to them, i know i’ll have to face them eventually but the fact that they are just trying to get me to set up a payment plan is just RIDICULOUS. right now we are waiting on the refferal office to get more information i have all of my neighbors reciepts well the ones who speak english/americans hah, and i’m keeping them for records. im waiting for a response from jane from kadena and she is trying to get more information on our previous renters water bills. this is just a crazy waiting game now. problem is, is that my bill is due the 20th of feb so should i pay or should we not? it is again almost 600 almost half our rent… hopefully we get this resolved before then.
Nina, I really hope it gets resolved before you are stuck with the bill. Its seems that they think you just can’t/won’t pay it without realizing that you didn’t (on purpose) consume that much water in such a short amount of time. Perhaps there would be a way to get an unbiased person to check the building for leaks or if the meter is off. Has anyone on Kadena suggested that approach yet?
Nina, you could get the previous tenants information by just going to the local water office yourself. If you are around McT or Courtney, I will take you there if you like. Hell, I will check your house if you need someone to do that.
thankyou all for your posts. so basically nothing we said or did helped because we’re pinned with the bill. Our housing agency offered to front us the money to pay the bill and now we’re paying installments. WONDERFUL,.. well i’m done being bitter so we’re just going to pay the darn bill and move on with our lives. Thankyou everyone for your help and concern and please dont let this happen to you and check your meters before it gets this bad, and i hope this never happens to any of you.
Did you figure out what happened? I hope so-I would hate for your bill to be this large multiple times.
I would still investigate other channels to go through-take it up the chain of command with the housing office if they aren’t helping you.
Our water bill is usually on the high side-of about 4500-5000 yen a month-so there is definitely a problem with yours.
yeah i have checked our next bill and its only 3000 yen so we’re basically getting jipped we’ve set up a payment plan so we have to pay this crazy bill, and purchase the water we didnt get to use/waste. sucks for us.