DROWNING IN NWC BILLS

CUSTOMERS OF the National Water Commission (NWC) are accusing the state-run utility company of questionable practices after observing massive jumps in their monthly bills, which have now ballooned into millions of dollars.

The development has forced at least one customer and her family to abandon their home after a final bill totalling more than $1 million was presented, while others have been forced to abandon the service, turning to trucked water instead.

Deanery Road resident Jermaine Graham told The Gleaner that his family began observing anomalies with their September bill last year after they did not receive July and August bills.

He said that his aunt, in whose name the bill is generated, reported the issue at one of NWC’s Corporate Area offices and was slapped with one that noted a balance of over $500,000.

Graham said that this was a significant jump from previous bills, which averaged below $10,000 monthly for the Vineyard Town premises.

“From there on a pure $100,000, $80,000, and $90,000 bills we get as poor people. Them start tell we seh we have leak, and when we look, we naah see nuh leak,” Graham said.

“We go up there and them not telling us anything positive. We a people who compliant, pay we bil,l and a we a get them heartache ya,” he added.

A copy of the March bill, which was seen by The Gleaner, showed a total amount due of $938,892. The following month it surpassed the million-dollar mark.

Graham said that the service has since been disconnected and that the family relies on neighbours for water or pays to have water transported via handcart to the premises.

In an email to The Gleaner, Cadeesha Wynter said she, her spouse, and their young baby moved out of their house to a rented property after the NWC generated a bill with a balance brought forward of $1 million.

Wynter said the NWC indicated that there was a leak at the premises and offered a payment plan.

“Even after seeing that there was an error in their system they want us to pay $600,000 first and then the other $600,000 on payment plan before they reconnect or do anything,” she said.

“We had to move with my young baby at the time because they disconnected the water from the premises. Now we are elsewhere paying rent and the house is just there because it’s ridiculous for us to pay $1 million,” she lamented.

The woman said she wrote to The Gleaner after reading the newspaper’s report late September on the $3.1 million water bill the NWC generated for a two-bedroom house in Portmore, St Catherine, managed by Jamaica-born Canadian Donald Foster.

Foster accused the entity of “extortion” after it indicated that a leak at the premises had caused the bill to skyrocket.

But the NWC billing issue did not come about recently.

Customary NWC bills totalled on average $5,000 per month for Chevelle Campbell’s family property in York Town, Clarendon, until six years ago when the figure began increasing dramatically and without warning.

Two houses are on the property, one of which was connected to a community standpipe. The other fed from it.

Campbell said the connection was authorised by the NWC and that the family operated with this setup for many years.

The monthly bills were generated in her 83-year-old grandmother’s name and indicated actual readings.

“It was very rare when we got an estimated bill,” she told The Gleaner.

“There came a point when one month it jumped to $15,000, and then after that, it kept increasing,” she said.

Campbell said that the family queried the bill and was told that there was leakage.

She said that they paid the NWC the outstanding amount and hired a plumber to address the issue.

“After we cleared up all of that we just got a big water bill for $1 million and something. So we ran out there, and we asked them what was happening? They said all this time they thought that they were servicing one yard.

“Remember, it’s a meter. They come and they read the meter, and the bills were not estimated. Most of the bills were read bills. And they’re saying that over the seven years we’ve lived there they realised that they have been underestimating the water usage so them just get up and make up a bill,” she said.

She said that the family paid what it could until the amount was reduced to approximately $700,000.

At that time, they applied for an amnesty but was told that they did not qualify if at least half of the balance was not cleared.

Campbell said they retained an attorney to assist with the process, but the NWC insisted that the money had to be paid.

She noted that they have not been able to comply and have been paying for trucked water since the NWC disconnected the supply.

The company has threatened litigation if the $705,648.61 owed is not paid.

“This is a notification that arrangements are being made to commence court proceedings against you under the NWC Act to recover the above-mentioned sum,” the water company said in a notice to Campbell’s grandmother, a copy of which was seen by The Gleaner.

The NWC outlined that the act, by litigation, allows it to place a charge on the property, sell it and recover the sums owed, and to seize by way of distrait any goods including any motor vehicle, plant, equipment, furniture, and other chattels found at the premises.

It said customers’ bills are determined by the consumption which is usually the result of a meter reading.

The company also noted that its meters are in keeping with global water industry standards and are tested and certified locally by both the Bureau of Standards and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

It said the overwhelming majority of customer bills generated monthly fall “well within” normal or expected consumption and billing range, and are readily accepted by our customers but that there are “a small fraction” of bills that are flagged for additional quality checks and thorough review.

“In all instances, the NWC team verifies the readings as accurate before the bill is dispatched to the customer,” it said.

NWC said in the case of the Deanery Road premises, the actual usage was “far below” the previously estimated consumption “possibly because of the existence of leaks” but which came to light after the NWC installed a new meter.

For the York Town property, NWC said separate from the 61 actual monthly meter readings conducted over a six-year period since the meter installation in 2010, it conducted at least five different inspections which showed suspected and confirmed leaks.

NWC said the $700,000 bill is as a result of the customer making “small token payments” to the account with no attempt to fully satisfy the charges nor any evidence of correction of the leaks repeatedly brought to attention.

Meanwhile, in an emailed response to a Gleaner query sent Friday, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) said that utility providers can back-bill customers if they have clear stipulations and guidelines in place, which are accessible to customers.

Elizabeth Bennett Marsh, public education specialist at the OUR, said in the case of the NWC, its Commercial Operations Policy Manual defines what it calls retroactive billing as the process of back-billing a customer’s account, where investigations reveal evidence of irregularities in the charges that were previously billed/ applied, or omitted.

It states further that the NWC is aware that despite its best efforts, there will be instances where it will be required to retroactively bill its customers with charges for water consumed and/ or sewerage collected and treated that were not previously billed or was incorrectly billed whether these charges were omitted or incorrectly applied through errors on its part or through acts of its customers.

The NWC’s retroactive billing takes place under the following conditions: incorrect billing resulting from deliberate acts of the customer or his/her agents; incorrect billing resulting from the commission’s internal process failures or mistakes; incorrect billing resulting from a faulty/defective meter.

Bennett Marsh said where customers are being retroactively billed, the NWC must notify the customers in writing, clearly stating the amount and the reasons for the additional sum being applied to their bills.

“Customers always have the option to query the billed amount to the NWC, and if they are not satisfied with the response, they can do so via the OUR through its Consumer Affairs Unit,” she said.

“The OUR encourages utility customers to submit their concerns in writing, where a response must be provided within specified timelines. In the case of NWC, it is within 30 working days. The customer then has the option to submit an appeal in writing to the OUR if they remain dissatisfied,” she added.

She said customers also have the option to contact their service provider, requesting payment arrangements to settle the outstanding amount but that such discussions should take place before the applicable due date of the bill.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com