Re: Broken water pipe-high water bill - Landlord Forum thread 205303

Re: Broken water pipe-high water bill by Daniel B (Calgary, AB, Canada) on July 27, 2010 @17:54

My experience: We had a basement suite we were renting in 2005. The toilet floater broke and was leaking for an entire month. We could hear the water running, but we didn't know the suite was empty and leaking, it did sound as somebody taking a shower. (The tenant was dumb as a doorknob, don't tell me you can't notice that thing running non-stop in your own bathroom). To make things short, from a normal $100/months bill we had a $1263 bill that month. This happened in Calgary, Alberta. We applied for a reduction, we hired a plumber to have a paper that say that everything was fixed (cost $90 for a 10 minutes inspection), and they decided it was unintentional (true) and got $1100 credit 2 months later. We had to pay actually the big bill to avoid being charged late fees.
So, good luck!

Lessons learned:
1: When you have the minimal suspicion that there could be a leak, get into the rental and check it out. We were fine, but in some other rentals you can have a flooded basement or water damage.
2: Tenants can be extremely dumb!

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