Our first water bill is pretty high..

Got our first water bill, Oct-Jan. There’s a $30 initiation fee on it. Without it, it’s still $173!!

One problem - we don’t know where our meter is! Parents have looked, plumber looked. If we knew where it was, I’d check to make sure the reading was right & that we’re not leaking.

The only excessive use I can think of is that I’ve been hand washing dishes since we haven’t gotten a dish washer yet & I most definitely am not doing it very efficiently lol. Could that really run up the bill?

We also weren’t living in the house until mid-Dec.

Going to have my SO call SCWA, but wanted to see f anyone had any thoughts

Message edited 1/4/2019 4:33:28 PM.

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Do you live on Li or elsewhere. LI has really inexpensive water bills..I am in NJ and water is a lot here.

Our first water bill is pretty high..

Do you have inground sprinklers that were running on a timer?

For reference I just moved as well, and I paid SCWA $102 for Sept-Dec. We moved in around Oct and did have IGS running until mid Oct

Message edited 1/4/2019 8:43:02 PM.

Our first water bill is pretty high..

We’re on LI..Town of Islip. I read water bills were minimal so it didn’t seem right.

We closed on the house in Oct. The sprinklers may have been running a couple of weeks? My Dad shut them off & blew out the lines for us so I’ll have to ask if he remembers when he did that.

We got a new 40 gal hot water heater but I don’t think that would effect anything?

Going to ask my SO to poke around the yard for the meter. I just hope we don’t have a leak :(

Our first water bill is pretty high..

That doesn't seem right to me. Our highest water bill ever in 11 years was $80 and that was in the summer, from filling the pool and running the sprinkler for our garden. Usually it's more around 50-60.

Our first water bill is pretty high..

Water meter is usually close to the road. Should be in line with the neighbors on either side. I only know this because I happened to be getting in my car one day while the lady was reading the meters and she bitched at me about the grass covering the meter and it being difficult to find

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

I agree that is very high.

My July through October bill was $192- but that included lawn watering and a pool mishap in which we had to practically refill the whole thing.

My last year's bill for Oct 13 thru Jan 11 was $68.00
Jan - April $47
April - July $128

My meter has been in the basement. If you have a basement it may be near where the sprinkler valve box is (Meter inside basement adjacent wall to calvle box outside)

If you don't have a basement there is usually a plate outside- again may be somewhat inline with the sprinkler valve box. Follow that to street. You may need a big wrench or curb-key to access it. Recently SCWA went to a digital meter reading program where a signal is sent from your meter to a vehicle nearby.

My point is I don't know if you can read your meter or if it would tell you anything. Unless it is leaking in the vault or sprinkler valve box.

You are correct in that it is too high, especially not living there until Dec. You can create an account on line and look at usage. I wonder if you have some water usage or left over billing in there from the previous owners. Definitely call them.

SCWA is pretty inexpensive, especially in that time period. Something's not right.

Message edited 1/5/2019 9:04:40 AM.

Our first water bill is pretty high..

wow that's really high! we pay like $30-40 every few months for our water bill- we are west hempstead water district, live in franklin square/GC south area

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Call the water company and have them come out to find and read your meter for you. It's possible with having a sprinkler system, you have a broken hose underground. That does seem pretty high for that time frame. Ours goes high spring through summer because my DH is obsessive about running the sprinklers 2x sometimes 3x a day when it's really hot.

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

My last bill was $121.80 for July to Oct.

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Posted by Hofstra26

Posted by Mrs213

Water meter is usually close to the road. Should be in line with the neighbors on either side. I only know this because I happened to be getting in my car one day while the lady was reading the meters and she bitched at me about the grass covering the meter and it being difficult to find

Really? Never heard of that. Our water meter is inside the house in our mudroom.

OP, that does sound like a lot. Our water bill is $53/quarterly.

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

that does seem high. i would make sure they arent charging you for the previous owners bill

Our first water bill is pretty high..

We just called SCWA. They said the meter has been running high since July which makes me wonder if there’s a leak associated with the sprinkler system. He said our meter is underground & inaccessible to us, Sigh! But they’re sending someone out on Tuesday to check the meter which also has a leak detector attached to it. If there’s a leak, they’ll have to come back and figure out where it is.

I would say our mistake in this is not requesting previous utility bills from the seller, then we would’ve seen the water bill was already unusually high & if there’s a leak, we could’ve had them fix it.

Fingers crossed this all doesn’t turn into a costly mess....

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Posted by alli3131

Posted by Hofstra26

Posted by Mrs213

Water meter is usually close to the road. Should be in line with the neighbors on either side. I only know this because I happened to be getting in my car one day while the lady was reading the meters and she bitched at me about the grass covering the meter and it being difficult to find

Really? Never heard of that. Our water meter is inside the house in our mudroom.

OP, that does sound like a lot. Our water bill is $53/quarterly.

Yeah ours is in a closet and they read it electronically. No need for them to ever come inside. We have SCWA

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Posted by muffaboo

Posted by alli3131

Posted by Hofstra26

Posted by Mrs213

Water meter is usually close to the road. Should be in line with the neighbors on either side. I only know this because I happened to be getting in my car one day while the lady was reading the meters and she bitched at me about the grass covering the meter and it being difficult to find

Really? Never heard of that. Our water meter is inside the house in our mudroom.

OP, that does sound like a lot. Our water bill is $53/quarterly.

Yeah ours is in a closet and they read it electronically. No need for them to ever come inside. We have SCWA

Mine is in the coat closet in our foyer

Message edited 1/5/2019 3:31:11 PM.

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Our first water bill is pretty high..

Definitely remember the $30 initial fee. Could it be the previous owners had a balance? That happened to us and we had to send it to the attorney... same they had a previous balance with their taxes yet somehow we closed and a year went by and the taxes never got paid they tried getting us to pay it and I flipped! When does the billing cycle begin? My highest bill over the summer was around $110 with sprinklers

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..

FWIW, the new hot water heater should make your water bill go down because it should be more efficient than whatever you had there previously.

Our first water bill is pretty high..

I live in Suffolk and we inherited previous owns bill that they didn't pay for a year.

Our first water bill is pretty high..

If the water is shut off to the sprinklers, then even if there is a leak you would not know it now. The water is off, no way to detect the leak. Check running toilets, faucets, shower valves, etc. My toilet in the master bath ran for 2 hours one night and caused a flood in the basement - over 3 inches of water. Yes it happens that fast. But a slow running toilet can use up a lot of water.

Re: Our first water bill is pretty high..