Young resident Steven Hajsinger has demanded the Hilltops Council give him a refund on his January water bill after what he claims was an excessively high reading due to a faulty water meter on his property.
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Mr Hajsinger said a meter reading taken on January 20 this year showing a high consumption of nine kilolitres over four days was wrong.
On February 6 Mr Hajsinger said he requested the water meter be tested and he paid the council a fee of $71 to do so.
“Council tested the water meter and found it was reading with an error of 9 per cent,” he said.
“A new water meter was installed at my property after the test and council issued a revised water consumption account and gave me a credit for $23.90, Council also refunded me the $71 for the meter testing fee after I complained, but that is not enough.
“This situation is a farce, all I want is a proper bill from that reading and for the council to reimburse me for the difference between what it should have been and what the faulty meter said I used, $23 is not enough, they admit the meter was faulty, they replaced it, but they still won’t give me a proper refund.”
Mr Hajsinger said the amount of water that the Council says he used is ridiculous.
They tell me I had a leak of 9000 litres (9kl) in the three days between the first and second reading if I had that internally my house would be flooded,” he said.
But council general manager Anthony McMahon said a second-meter test found Mr Hajsinger’s water meter was not faulty.
"While initial testing on Mr Hajsinger’s water meter detected a reading error of 9 per cent, subsequent tests on the meter found a calculation error of just 0.9 per cent. This is well within the margin of error, and does not constitute a faulty reading," he said.
"Even though the meter was ultimately found not to be faulty, Mr Hajsinger was refunded the meter testing fee of $71.00, in addition to receiving a credit on his water account of $23.90. A new water meter was also installed.
"Larger than normal water meter readings can catch residents by surprise and often it’s due to concealed or undetected water leakages on the customer’s property."
Mr McMahon said the Council has no obligation to adjust water accounts affected by leakages in private plumbing, but in some circumstances they will consider staged payment requests from customers whose water accounts have been affected by leakages.
Council’s draft policy outlining guidelines for the administration of such requests can be found at:http://hilltops.nsw.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Agenda-28-Jun-17.pdf