$1555 water bill (Las Vegas: house, neighborhood, buyer)

rhondaq · 06-16-2011, 01:01 PM

I just bought a house in las vegas 4/15/2011 and my 1st water bill was 1555 dollars. The house had 3 leaking sprinkler cylanoids but no standing water anywhere. I also have a pool but it does not have an auto-fill. How is this possible? Does anyone know what an average water bill should be? 3 bedroom 1306 sq ft, 3 residents??

airics · 06-16-2011, 01:03 PM

if you had leak, that is entirely possible..

Justin Time · 06-16-2011, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhondaq

I just bought a house in las vegas 4/15/2011 and my 1st water bill was 1555 dollars. The house had 3 leaking sprinkler cylanoids but no standing water anywhere. I also have a pool but it does not have an auto-fill. How is this possible? Does anyone know what an average water bill should be? 3 bedroom 1306 sq ft, 3 residents??

$1,555.00? UNLESS you just refilled the pool and those leaks (irrigation valves, maybe?) are really bad. . .

Call your water company and your realtor.

It could be a typo or an overdue amount from the previous owner.

IF that is a bill for YOUR usage ONLY, then it is PROBABLE that the previous owner would have known about the leak and SHOULD have disclosed it.

My water company uses a tiered billing:
LEVEL 1: the first 8,000 gallons are charged at a low-volume rate (just under $2 per CCF),
LEVEL 2: the next 6,000 gallons are charged at a higher conservation rate,
LEVEL 3: the next 6,000 gallons are chared at an inefficient rate,
LEVEL 4: the next 1,000 gallons are charged at an excessive rate,
LEVEL 5: and EVERYTHING over that is chargest at a wastefull rate (about $10.25 per CCF).

Once you go above inefficient . . .

airics · 06-16-2011, 01:13 PM

the previous owner was probably a BANK, you buy as-is PLUS the buyer has 7 days to inspect.... was the house not inspected?
refilling the pool would only cost 100.

i had a similar issue with one small sprinkler head DRIPPING... my bill was 150. found and fixed.. bill is around 40 a month

there may be more than 3 leaks.

or it may be a typo but dont count on it

rhondaq · 06-16-2011, 01:15 PM

I didn't refill the pool, and the water company checked the meter and said it was OK. They said I used enough to fill the pool 12x, and it's a 27000 gallon pool! Where could the water have possibly gone? The SRPDS said the last owners knew of no problems.

airics · 06-16-2011, 01:17 PM

your irrigation system is probably CONSTANTLY watering the area... check the valve

Buzz123 · 06-16-2011, 01:41 PM

$1550.00? That would fill the pool of every house in the neighborhood.

Muonic · 06-16-2011, 01:45 PM

I suppose it is possible, but that seems like a pretty big leak, to go unnoticed. Check for leaks, by turning off everything in the house that uses water, and then check the water meter. Check the meter again in a few hours, and see if it has changed. If it has, then you are losing water somewhere. If you are losing 10000 gallons/day, it won't take long to see the meter move.

Some more leak tips here, on the web site.

Find and Fix Leaks

MediocreButArrogant · 06-16-2011, 01:52 PM

I had a sprinkler valve fail to close (because it was on a drip, but it wasn't a low flow valve) and it leaked about 1.5 gpm for just over two weeks. That added up to 53,000 gallons of water (would fill your average 15k gallon pool three and a half times), and my water bill was about $200.

A leak as big as yours should be spinning the little triangle on the meter (not the needle) like crazy. First thing you should do is confirm the leak, and its magnitude. Is your yard large enough to hide a 330k gallon per month leak?

By the way, the word is "solenoid", not "cylanoid".

Buzz123 · 06-16-2011, 01:54 PM

I had that happen to our unoccupied house in Albuquerque while we were looking for a buyer. Wasn't $1550.00, but it was way too high, so I complained to them that they had to have made a mistake. I went even over to Albuq. and met a guy from the water company at the property, where I proved there was no leak, the realtor had been checking the property regularly. The thing that got them to drop it was when I told the guy that the amount of water they said we used was enough to fill my pool in Las Vegas two or three times, and if that much water had been running it would have flooded my yard, and several of my neighbors' yards. He agreed and I never heard another word.