RICHMOND, Va. — Ben Saunders appreciated a call from Richmond's Department of Public Utilities earlier this year alerting him to a potential water leak associated with his account.
But the icy winter weather initially prevented him from investigating fully.
"This was during the ice storm, so like the whole ground was frozen over," Saunders said.
Once the ice melted, Saunders was able to come out and open up his water meter. He discovered it was flooded.
Saunders called the city to report the leak was their responsibility, and they ended up replacing the meter.
But his March bill had grown to more than $2,300. For context, his February bill totaled $81.
"I got a disconnect notice, which, that was the most troubling thing out of this was the disconnect notice," Saunders said.
A Department of Public Utilities customer service representative initially told Saunders a credit for the water he was charged for due to the leak would come in 7 to 10 days, but it never did.
The city encouraged him to enter into a promise pay plan to avoid disconnection.
"I just did it because I'm too busy to call the city every day and try to get it sorted out," he said. "So I was like, I'll just do this promise pay, so that the water didn't just get disconnected, and then figure out how to get the credit back."
That's when Saunders saw our story featuring another city resident who had her water restricted over a massive unpaid bill that also resulted from a leaking city water meter. He then reached out to CBS 6 about his situation, and we reached out to DPU on his behalf.
Watch: Richmond restricted woman’s water flow over $3,000 bill: 'It seems crazy'
Just as with the other resident we profiled, once CBS 6 reached out, DPU took action to credit the account.
"If I hadn't randomly reached out to you, I would just be back in the same situation since I got the bill today, where I could still, the water could still end up being disconnected," he said.
Now Saunders wants the city to make changes to ensure this stops happening.
"If a city employee comes out, changes my water meter, which has a leak coming out of it, that they would then go back and say, 'Hey, we saw the leak on here,' and that would trigger the accounting department to just automatically credit the bill, and it not take months, and not make somebody pay money they never really owed. Like, I hope something like that can come out of this," he said.
DPU said that because of the leak at the meter, they needed a couple of cycles to complete the adjustment. The adjustment should be reflected on Saunders' next bill.
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