Utility Bill Audit

Project Description:

3R was hired to perform a water audit for a multi-family residential property that was experiencing hardship with their water bills. Often times, utility companies are assumed to be error free and that their meter reads and billing systems can be trusted at face value. However, no organization is immune to making mistakes. This situation was a perfect example of meter reading errors that led to inaccurate billing.

Over the course of seven years, this 120 unit complex received water bills for 11 meters on their property. The client began looking at the bills more in depth and realized that some bills seemed too low and others too high, indicating that the utility bill they were receiving did not align with their water consumption. After several email exchanges, phone calls and office visits, the client eventually got their state representative involved to sort out the confusion. Despite a resolution being agreed upon, the water bills still continued to be higher than the actual water consumption.

Project Description

3R investigated the entire history of water bills, normalized consumption errors with typical usage patterns, and determined the billing calculation methods used by the utility company. This analysis indicated that the utility company was not using a consistent method for billing.

Results:

After cross-referencing the calculation methods listed in the local city ordinances and re-calculating, according to normalized consumption, 3R concluded that the property was overcharged by hundreds of thousands of dollars. A water audit report was delivered to the client containing the methodology and calculations that were used to determine this outcome.