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Water company overcharges Montgomery County residents thousands of dollars for single pay period

By and FOX 5 DC Digital Team
Published 
News
FOX 5 DC

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Baltimore County resident Kevin says WSSC Water has overcharged his parents, who live in Montgomery County, tens of thousands of dollars for just one pay period. At first, Kevin thought it was a meter reading issue, until FOX 5 started looking for answers.

Outrageous water bills

FOX 5's Ike Ejiochi is getting answers for an issue we first brought to you earlier this week -- customers complaining of extraordinarily high water bills.

Kevin and his parents have been battling with WSSC Water for months over a massive bill totally more than $43,000 that was only for six months of service. The water company says the customers, who live in a modest single-family home with three toilets, went through 2.1 million gallons of water and sewage use. That's enough to fill up a pool every day for nine months straight.

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After months of back and forth, the company agreed to charge them about $2,500, which was still too high of a price.

Then, FOX 5 reached out to WSSC Water. That's when the water company discovered a human error and says the bill was indeed a mistake, lowering it to only $42.

READ MORE: Montgomery County Executive announces proposal to temporarily suspend indoor dining

“If we make a mistake we own it," says WSSC Water rep Luis Maya. "In this particular case, it was human error. It was a meter reading that was human error and it was a mistake. For that, we apologize.”

Despite the apology, Kevin says the experience still leaves him feeling uneasy.

“I think it was a fair resolution but I don’t feel good," Kevin says. "Honestly, I have a headache. I worry about people that get into the position and think I need to get set up on a payment plan because this must be right. I don’t know how many times they told me they were right but I refused to believe it.”

You can protect yourself against this issue by regularly checking your bill for irregularities. To make sure you don't have a toilet leak and get overcharged, WSSC Water says to put food dye in your toilet tank. If the color runs in your bowl, you know you have a leak.