Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

J
Lv 6
J asked in Home & GardenMaintenance & Repairs · 7 years ago

Why are my electric and water bills nearly ten times higher than they should be?

I've been living in a new home since the beginning of this year. Our first PUD bill was for a partial billing cycle of about five weeks (normal bills are about two months) and came to about $98.

We just received our first bill for a full cycle; $992. We went from using approximately 400 kwh in our first cycle to being billed for 7675 kwh this cycle. We also apparently went from 350 CF of water to 6700 CF this billing cycle.

We've had everything pretty much exactly the same since moving into the house. We didn't change anything that should be causing such an insane amount of water or electricity usage.

There are no new fees, deposits, etc. on this bill. We are only being charged for electricity and water. I checked our water meter to see if the dial was still going even with all the water inside the house shut off; the need wasn't moving, so it's unlikely we have any leaks. The house had a great inspection report prior to us buying it with no noted electrical or water issues.

Additionally when I called the PUD to ask why the bill was so high, they checked their records and found a similar incident happened about two years ago, but don't have much more info on it.

While all initially had a good laugh about starting a grow op, this is no longer funny. We're looking at a $1000 bill we cannot pay. Does anyone know what we can do or what we should do to figure this out? I checked to see if someone is siphoning electricity or water and couldn't find anything.

2 Answers

Relevance
  • Marduk
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    Don't the bills indicate the readings that these amounts are derived from. I would ask for some kind of audit to see if your not being confused with someone else. Start taking pictures of your meters weekly.

  • Marko
    Lv 6
    7 years ago

    Were there any contractors working on the house recently?

    Source(s): ac tech
Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.