Reply #31: I had a battle with the city of Cleveland water department

[Ikonoklast]

First off, that department is notorious for being staffed with political appointees that don't even show up for work, but still get a paycheck. They take indifference to a level previously unknown by mortal man.

It started when my then wife and I moved into one of six townhouses, a brand-new unit. We were the first to take occupancy from the builder. Everything was fine until our first water bill, which was stupendous, considering there were only two people using water at my residence.

The builder had satisfied any previous utility bills at closing, and the lender verified this. So, I called the city about my bill, and the response was, "Pay it or we shut off the water. Period."

Not willing to pay a water bill of over $600.00 for a quarter, I went downtown to the City of Cleveland Water Dept. and, after waiting three hours, got the nice lady to tell me that if I didn't pay up right then, the water would be shut off tomorrow.

I told her to go for it.

Sure enough, they came out the very next day. Seems that the city had installed one main water meter in front of my address on a central feed that split into six auxiliary lines to each residence, instead of six separate meters after the main feed was split.

It is the cities' responsibility to install and meter the water correctly. They failed to do so.

They shut the water off at the main.

Now, five other families that had never been billed for water since moving in got their water shut off.

THEY WERE NOT HAPPY.

The next day, Cleveland Water came out and retro-fitted the lines with meters. But they still wanted ME to pay the outstanding bill, for my neighbors' water use.

I told them to see me in court.

They lost. Judge ruled summarily on the evidence at hand.