HOUSTON — A Houston homeowner's water bill rose from $120 to $2,000 in back-to-back months, and now, she said she's having trouble getting answers from the City of Houston.
Arwen Mallet said she has been fighting the charges since last summer.
"For about 10 to 12 years we have lived here -- we have averaged 4,000 to 7,000 gallons each month," she said.
But that changed with a bill last summer.
"Starting in June, Houston Public Works says we used 67,000 for that month and in July they said we used 97,000," she said.
She said she opened a complaint with the city and kept paying her normal monthly amount. That's when things got worse. She said other city-provided services were in danger of being cut off.
"A city employee came and took our trash bin and told us it was because we hadn’t paid a bill, so we weren’t going to get city services," she said.
After she called to complain, she said they brought her trash can back.
Then, one day, they noticed someone in their yard.
"She said she was installing a meter for our water," Mallet said.
She said she asked the woman if it was new or if something was wrong.
"She said the one before wasn’t working," Mallet said.
After the new meter was installed, the family's water bill returned to normal. The new meter might have fixed the bills moving forward, but it didn't erase the thousands they owed, which had ballooned to about $5,000.
Mallet said they asked for what's called an administrative hearing. She said they got an official letter from the city saying the hearing was going to happen on March 3. But, when they logged in for the virtual meeting last Friday, no one from the city was there.
"We took our time off of work last Friday and sat on a virtual meeting for 45 minutes and the city no-showed," Mallet said.
Mallet said she was later told that the letter from the city actually had a typo and the hearing was supposed to be on March 23. In a statement, Houston Public Works said: "As with any concern or complain about a water bill, Houston Public Works will investigate it, and follow our processes, we will do our best to resolve the matter with the customer."
The Mallets said they've done everything they can to get answers and they still feel left in the dark.
"Out of probably 15 different people we’ve talked to -- 311 tickets, calling the mayor’s office -- we can’t get a single conversation or answer," she said. "We just want to move on. We want to pay a fair price for our water in the city."
Houston Public Works said that since it was late in the day on Monday, they weren't able to fully look into the matter. They did say they would get back to KHOU 11 News when they got more information about the issue.
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