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12,374 water bill - 2 months

chuchurocket00

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27 Jan 2015
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I live in an apartment complex where water is shared between tenants. In the beginning, all was fine. About 28-40 at most for 2 months worth of water. The most expensive it has ever been is around 4800 yen, (despite me being gone to the US for 2 months lol...)

My husband moved in and they said we would have to pay for two. So we were expecting around 6000-8000 at most. The bill was 12,374. I have never received a bill this expensive for water in all of my years in Tokyo, even when I lived in a house of 3-4 and we shared utilities.

I just want to know if this sounds normal at all? Or could there possibly be a leaking pipe or something going on somewhere? Or perhaps a neighbor is actually a mermaid? lol.

Right now the price is split between 4 tenants, 2 being my husband and myself. Granted, we weren't even around for about 3 weeks to even utilize the water that much, and being out of the house often, and doing laundry about once a week, we are not showering down waterfalls of H2O everyday lol. I agreed to split the bill, so I understand I cant complain about not being there but being charged anyways, but I am just worried that I am having to pay for a broken pipe or some kind of water leakage problem they are having and not addressing. As we were gone for vacation for 3 weeks, technically that means, those other 2 tenants ran up around 10,000 yen by themselves in 1 month

Until I moved into this apartment, I was paying around 1100-2000 per month for water, through a normal water company for my individual unit.

Thanks for any input given.

P.S. between 4 tenants, the total water bill was 24,751. We are paying half of that. Nearly 25,000 yen water bill for 4 people? Does that sound right? Has your water bill ever been almost as much as your electricity bill?
 
Have you tried the obvious things such as checking for leaks, talking to he landlord, or asking the water department to double-check the meter reading?

What is the typical volume of water used at that apartment? What was the volume used on the bill in question?
 
Yes, we have checked for leaks around our facility. We don't have individual water meters, and we have no idea where the water meter is even located. I have contacted the landlord and real estate agent, but no reply yet. I don't even know what company they go through for water. The volume isn't written. Everyone has to pay a split amount between all apartment units. So even though my husband and I were gone for 3 weeks, we still had to pay for 1 months worth of water. They never write the volume of water being use, just the price of the total and then per tenant. So for all I know, she could be pulling these numbers out of thin air. My water bill is 1000 yen more expensive than my electricity bill last month.

I have asked them to check for leaks, but I do not know how far the landlord will go to check. Even if I were paying between the usual 3 tenants up until my husband was added into the equation, it would still mean that this month, the water bill magically doubled out of nowhere. I am really hoping they don't give me the "shiyouganai" treatment and insist I pay it without looking into it. Neither the real estate agent, nor landlord has replied, despite it being business hours for the real estate agency.

Thanks a lot for replying!! Sorry I can't provide much more, I am in the dark as to what to do also.
 
I would refuse to pay unless and until I saw the water bill.

What sort of oddball place are you living in? Is the landlord on the same water hookup?
 
I had this happen myself. It was a leak. Deep underground. How was I supposed to know it was a leak? And boy did the city profit nicely for having that 2 month interval between bills and me finally realizing something was wrong.

Tenacious D sang "The voices inside me are telling me to blow up city hall..." Yeah.

So these people who check the meter tend to be geezers who know absolutely nothing and have no responsibility for anything. You would think they would have skills after checking all these meters to know when something is off, since people generally don't have olympic size swimming pools to fill.

So turn off all your water at each faucet. And go look at your meter. If its still moving, you have a leak.

Go to the water department at the city hall and tell them if so. If not, still go and declare something is wrong and have them check. And tell them, for me, that they need to train their meter geezers to spot problems.

If you have a leak, they will most likely fix it within a week. Ask for a refund. I got a bit back, but not nearly enough. They acted like I should have known why my bill kept rising.
 
Man, you're telling me.
The apartment is great other than that.. I thought it was odd at first, to split the water between all the tenants evenly.
It sounds to me that she was too lazy to install individual water meters for each house, for whatever reason. Totally beats me. Don't even know why you would build apartments like that to begin with.
Just figured that was a typical thing here. Definitely regretting it. But a spacious 1LDK with a garden space in Tokyo near Shibuya for 80,000 was a steal.

I will request to see the actual water bill and see what they say.
 
Wow, Mark of Zorro, thanks for that info. I really suspect it is a leak as well because I have never had a water bill as much as my electricity bill in any country I have ever lived in.

I am going to contact them and get the water bill and contact the water company to look into checking for leaks. Thanks a lot!!
 
How well do you trust the other tenants?
How exactly do you get this water bill? From the city or from your landlord? Never heard of it coming from anywhere else but the city.
 
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