Some 7,000 property owners in the city of Houston are paying monthly water bills even though they haven’t used a single drop of water.
Houston City Council voted to change the ordinance in December to give those customers a way to stop the never-ending charges. But even with that change, the water department is still sending monthly bills without letting those citizens know there is a way to make them stop.
‘DRAINED’ Investigation into Houston water issues
We are trying to move these issues with the water department forward and build on the small changes Houston Public Works has promised you, me, and the city council. But we keep having to look back to hold them accountable and make them keep their word.
“The reason I’m here today is that beginning back in Sept of 2021, I have been charged base water and base sewage for a vacant lot that has no water service,” said Patricia Russo.
Patricia Russo was one of more than two dozen water customers who showed up with us at the city council last October. She had tried everything else.
“I’ve written to various divisions in the city 15 different times and of those 15 times, I received no response.”
Her problem is one we had heard about from other customers. For example, Elena Garcia. She called us to stop the monthly bills the water department was sending for a meter on her property that hadn’t been attached to a home in 20 years.
The city told her the only way to make the charges stop was to pay a plumber more than a thousand dollars to remove the meter from the ground.
“It’s a very expensive thing to do to remove it, so people just don’t want to have to pay it, so you can keep on paying that monthly fee if you want,” said Garcia.
“For how long?” Amy Davis asks.
“I don’t know,” said Garcia.
When we called the city, they sent a crew to Garcia’s property to plug the meter. The water department wiped out the outstanding charges and agreed not to send her anymore.
“What I’m asking today, as was done in the case of that person, is they had the charges stopped and had their money refunded. I’m asking that for myself,” said Russo.
Houston City Council members seemed so helpful that day, on camera.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” said Dave Martin. “We have an office set up in the basement to handle each and every complaint today.”
What happened after that city council meeting where leaders promised to help customers?
We kept in touch with Russo. Even after her meeting with a water customer service representative, that employee never followed up like she said she would. The monthly bills did keep coming.
It’s important to note that even though Russo and other property owners like her are using no water, they are subject to the same water rate increases as everyone else. When the city started charging her in 2021 for the meter, her monthly bill was $16.69. Two water rate increases later, her bill is now $22.13 a month.
“I think it’s about generating money for the city without providing any services. It’s just free money because they’re not doing anything for that money. I mean, they’re not providing any water service. The sewer’s disconnected so they’re not doing anything there,” said Russo.
In a final public show at the 11th hour on (December 13), then Mayor Sylvester Turner, presented a change. Moving forward, he said customers like Russo could instead pay $150 to lock their meters and stop the monthly bills.
“We’re not here to charge customers for water they didn’t use,” said Turner.
It wasn’t until late January when we asked the water department what had become of Russo’s case, that a representative called her and told her she was getting a refund of $474. She could then pay the money to lock her meter.
What about other water customers who are still paying meter charges?
Amy also asked the city when it planned to let the thousands of other customers know they could pay $150 to stop the ongoing monthly charges. A representative told me they are in the process of letting everyone know. By our calculations, the water department has made about $3.5 million from billing customers with vacant lots in the last two years.