Atlanta Woman Receives $9,000 Water Bill

An Atlanta woman has been facing an ongoing battle with her water company as her normal $100 water bill has exponentially increased each month since last July with the latest bill coming in at a total of $9,000, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Blayne Beacham owns a three-bedroom cottage in the Buckhead area of Atlanta and has always paid a water bill that usually amounted to an understandable $100. However, when she received a $497 bill last July she knew something wasn’t right and assumed that there must be an explanation.

“I assumed I had a leak, so I got a handyman to come out and check everything,” said Beacham, who went on to appeal the bill.

Business Insider reported that the water company declined her appeal and informed her that there was nothing wrong with her bill or her meter and instructed her to pay the owed amount.

This trend continued as Beacham then received a December bill at $758 and an April bill at $2585. Once again she appealed the bill and complained that her meter must be broken. At that point she knew she had to work something out with the company as she couldn’t afford a bill of that amount.

“We called the water department and worked out an agreement where I would pay them $120 a month until I could get a court date” to again appeal, she said.

Buying herself some time, Beacham once again hired a specialist to come and confirm that she had no leaks in her home. She also was able to get the water company to install a data logger that tracks the water usage hour by hour in hopes to find exactly when she is supposedly using the water.

However, all of these over charges seemed to pale in comparison when she received her June bill claiming that the Atlanta woman owed $9,000 for the water she was using in her home.

“I opened my mailbox and got a bill for $9,224.40 — $2,638.68 worth of past charges, and $6,705.72 worth of new charges,” she said.

According to her company, Watershed Management, they are officially looking into the situation and will be reviewing the data logger that was installed on her meter. Unfortunately the data can’t be read until it finishes it’s cycle in the middle of July.

Beacham expects to hear something regarding the bills and is hoping that they figure out exactly what the problem is before she is stuck with the entire $9,00 bill.

What would you do if you received a $9,000 bill from your water company?