Water bill jumped 40% out of nowhere, anyone else deal with this?!
Category: Operations
2 replies
Original post
Anyone else's water bill make zero sense in the summer? My duplex tenants swear they're not doing anything different and my bill jumped almost 40% this quarter. Not accusing anyone of anything but also... 2 people don't usually use that much water unless there's a leak or something wrong with the system. Gonna have the plumber check the crawlspace this weekend just in case. Small property ownership is just detective work with extra steps sometimes.Reply by Elizabeth Morgan
Yeah this happened to me last summer, turned out to be a toilet running constantly that nobody noticed because it wasn't loud, just slowly draining money in the background. Cost me like 3 months of higher bills before I caught it. Before you pay for the plumber to check the crawlspace, have your tenants just watch the water meter for like 10 min with everything off in the unit, if it's still ticking that's your answer right there and you didn't need to pay anyone yet. Irrigation lines are another sneaky one if there's any outdoor watering involved. Hopefully it's something cheap...Reply by Marc St.James
Been there. A jump like that is almost always a running toilet, like Elizabeth said. They waste a ton of water without making a sound. Easy test before you pay a plumber, put a little food coloring in the back of the toilet tank and wait 15 minutes without flushing. If color shows up in the bowl, the flapper's leaking and that's your problem. Usually a cheap part and a quick fix.