Any recourse vs utility company for $600 charge for leak?

[Zigner]

Where am I "at"? You make it sound like I'm in transit. Maybe I am and don't know it yet lol. Lee County, Cape Coral.

I didn't get what you were saying but I think I agree BUT they should charge as little as possible. There's no crime but a likely event they'll get some easy pay days at the customers' expense. You don't stick me with the full bill. You charge only the cost of the service/product however you come up with a number but you make a decent effort. You don't pretend to offer me half adjustment when half the bill in these special and common cases is off a falsely estimated "sewage" figure as none of 90% of it touched sewage. No one should profit from anyone else's accidents. And being a monopoly these basic social concepts especially apply. At least in my POV.

Your point of view is seriously skewed. This is NOT the water company's problem...at all.

 

[stealth2]

I don't think juntjoo understands how any of this works. Sure, the water is there. Free. How does it get to juntjoo's house? By magic wand? No-o-o-o-o. There are pipes (which cost $$ to install), there are pumps (which cost money to install & operate), there are processes required to make the water potable (which costs $$ in both process and staff), there is maintenance (which costs $$ for equipment and staff). There is a need for staff to answer stupid questions (more $$).

Heck - even people with well water have costs ($$) to get the water into their home.

@juntjoo - is the leak in the part of the piping that *you* are responsible for? i.e. not pipes out under the street?

 

[FarmerJ]

Stealth the bigger hidden cost for homeowners with well water is when that septic system must be replaced or a well has to go deeper if a aquifer level drops too low or other problems like when the start up capacitor burns out. BUT Juntjoo I have a question , if your water meter is way out near edge of street instead of say being inside your house who is responsible to maintain the line between the meter and your home ? ( you earlier made it sound as if your local water utility is a for profit company, If your water utility is owned by a city or county they are not there to make profits , they are supposed to collect enough to pay for treatment to make sure the water is potable and treatment again on the sewage end of things. SO I suggest you re focus your negative view of your public works dept and look into leak detection monitoring that you can install/ have installed on to the line between your home but right up close to the meter and use it to monitor for leaks in the future or consider relocating to a home that is serviced by its own onsite well and septic. ( lastly if your homes water line is not plastic maybe you should consider having it replaced with plastic so it can flex a bit if there are ground conditions like when soils shift )