Now that's a padded bill! Phuket woman cries foul over 16,000 water charge at empty house

[webfact]

Now that's a padded bill! Phuket woman cries foul over 16,000 water charge at empty house

 

Picture: Sanook

 

A woman in Phuket has appealed to the government's Damrongtham watchdog amid claims that the provincial water authority are trying to rip her off. 

 

Natthaphat Sermchotdamrong's property is empty. 

 

The bill for many previous months was just a 32 baht service fee. No water was used and the same was the case in October. 

 

Yet the October bill demand was 16,570 baht.

 

The authority claimed she had used 541,000 liters - enough to fill a large swimming pool, she said. 

 

In the following month it was back to 32 baht again.

 

Checks were made and no leaks were found and despite refusing to pay the padded bill she was told that she must or face legal action. 

 

Exasperated she has now sought justice with Damrongtham that handles unresolved complaints from the public. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-12-21

[Old Croc]

Hard to see how it would be a mistake. Must have been a leak, or running tap, quietly fixed and existence now denied.

 

Back in the alternate world, I was once hit with several high water bills until a leak was found just on my side of the meter. I had to pay up even though it was probably caused by faulty instillation of the meter.

[Psimbo]

I blame the naughty burmese at the nearby building site- they will have run a pipe from the house and filled the pool at their luxury accommodation.

[dinsdale]

5 hours ago, Old Croc said:

Hard to see how it would be a mistake. Must have been a leak

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

541,000 liters

That's one god almighty leak. Maybe something like this.????

 

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

I would be happy just to get a printed bill at all! Pay my water by Direct Debit but never see a bill.

[grego49]

Does next door have a new swimming pool,,,,

[Trollmann]

Something like this happend to me too. It was at a time when there was no water at almost every night for a couple of weeks. I think that when we flush the toilet at night the inlet valve was not closed and when the water supply was restored a lot of air from the tubes was blown into the pipes and meter. I complained and the water authority said it happens a lot of times people gets skyrocket unusal bills of unknown reasons and everyone have to pay according to the meter. Now i always turn off the master valve every time there is no water supply. But this does not explain what happened to this homeowner because if there was nobody in the house there wouldent be any open valves different from the following months. If you buy a meter you can blow into the meter in any directions to adjust the counter. A single blow will adjust the meter counter by about 5 liter. Imagine what if you connect a vacum cleaner or leaf blower to the meter, that will be a lot of "water" to pay. So be careful when the water supply is down. Even your neighbor can use the oppertunity to reverse his meter and increase yours, by opening your tap blowing air from his tap into your tap when there is no water in the tube. I suggest that it should be 1 master watermeter within the area of 100 water subscribers so there is a way of controlling the numbers. For now there is no master watermeters at all said the officer at pwa

Edited December 21, 2018 by Trollmann

[bluesofa]

I can remember an Australian guy who left an employee to look after his house while he was away for months. The employee's boyfriend connected a hosepipe and was selling the water to water trucks, filling up their tanks to sell on.

On his return, the house owner eventually found out what had been going , but ended up with a hefty bill too.

[owenm]

On the overall calculation, it works out at 12.50 litres per min. x 60 min x 24hrs x 30 days.. Impossible..

Take them to court..

[ChipButty]

8 hours ago, owenm said:

On the overall calculation, it works out at 12.50 litres per min. x 60 min x 24hrs x 30 days.. Impossible..

Take them to court..

I was about to ask the same question also add to that the flow rate

[Old Croc]

9 hours ago, owenm said:

On the overall calculation, it works out at 12.50 litres per min. x 60 min x 24hrs x 30 days.. Impossible..

Take them to court..

I did some similar calculations before I expressed my thoughts.

Although I started from the aspect that a running tap uses approximately 9 litres per minute. At that rate I came up with a time of about 42 days to use 541,000 litres, which is obviously longer than a monthly bill. However, it's impossible to know the flow rate of the water supply at that particular address,  that's why I also mentioned the possibility of a leak (broken pipe). Stealing of water from the empty property is also a possibility.

I've lived in Thailand long enough to know that few locals tell all the truth all the time, so my opinions are rarely based on one side of a story.

I still consider the gauge was most likely active at some stage for it to record anything at all, but don't dismiss the possibility of it being faulty.

At the very least the publicity will result in a discount.

[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

I would be happy just to get a printed bill at all! Pay my water by Direct Debit but never see a bill.

I'd check your bank balance very quickly