Why a Houston couple intentionally pays too high a water bill

HOUSTON – A Houston couple is intentionally overpaying their water bill because they claim the city is charging them the wrong bill.

The Kemps, Wendy and Bellamy, moved into their Second Ward home about 14 months ago. For the first four months, they said they only received a water bill after calling the city. Then we sent them invoices, but there were still problems.

“I felt like the estimated usage didn’t seem right, so I started tracking it with our water meter,” Wendy Kemp said. “And we have a brand new water meter because it’s a new house and I realized they were very far apart and we were being hugely undercharged for what we used real.”

Their water meter currently shows they used 45,000 gallons of water, but the city charged them for 28,000.

“That’s almost $500 worth of water that they didn’t actually charge us for,” Wendy Kemp told us.

For months, Wendy has made it a habit to go to her meter, check it, then visit the city’s website to estimate how much she thinks she will have to pay.

“I actually had to create a spreadsheet where I know where I’m reading (the meter), what day, and then how much I paid, how many gallons I paid, because I have to estimate my bill” , she said. .

KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun asked the couple why they continue to pay more than they are charged.

WENDY KEMP: “Because I don’t want to be surprised by a huge bill.”

RILWAN: “What is your concern? What are you worried about?”

WENDY KEMP: “What happened to other people, getting a sudden $3,000 water bill at one point.”

RILWAN: “And you think it’s possible?”

WENDY KEMP: “I think it’s going to happen. They will eventually realize that there is a huge discrepancy between their records and the actual reading from our meters and they will want to bill us for all that water.

RILWAN: “And that’s why you pay more in case the city comes back later and says, ‘actually, that’s what you should have been paying all this time.’

WENDY KEMP: “I would rather pay a hundred dollars a month and have credit with the city than end up with such a huge and unexpected bill.”

The couple remembers receiving a notice on a bill telling them to stop paying their bill because they had received a lot of credit.

“There was a time when we didn’t pay for about three months,” Wendy Kemp said because they had good credit.

They allowed Rilwan to view their account, which showed that they currently had $175 in credit.

Despite the city’s first stop payment notice, the couple continues to pay more than they are billed.

“We just ignored it,” Bellamy Kemp said. “Keep doing what we’re doing. Because the government is going to come back, the city is going to come back and want this money one day and we’d rather pay it little by little rather than one big lump sum.

The public works spokesperson said the Kemps should call the city’s customer account department “to resolve any differences in the readings.”