When it’s this warm, every drop of water hitting the grass seems to disappear instantly. Shiva Sharma feels his money is vanishing just as quickly when it comes to his water bill. But, "ultimately, you need water," says Sharma.
That's why, when his water bills arrive, Sharma says he usually just pays them without a second thought, or taking a water meter reading. That though, has landed him in some hot water! This past winter, a meter reader checked his out and determined it was broken. "So they replaced it," remembered Sharma. "I thought that was it!"
Sharma says his water bills kept coming, and kept costing him roughly the same amount he'd always paid. That is, until a June "revision" bill arrived for 827 dollars. "Sticker shock! I'm like wow, that's a lot of money!"
Sharma agreed to pay it in a two part installment. The first payment was supposed to be 550, the rest payable in August.
But Sharma says he accidentally paid them just 500 on that first payment, and he didn't detect and correct the error for six days. So the city then demanded he pay the balance immediately plus 12 dollars extra for interest!
"By my calculations i owe you 7 days of interest on 50 bucks." said Sharma. "And they're like, no, because you didn't pay that voids the agreement! Therefore we're going to charge you interest on the past June bill."
Sharma feels this entire situation is unfair. In his mind, the city could have spotted the broken water meter far earlier, saving him the extra payments. "My guess is this happens, not just to me for 11 dollars, but to other people for hundreds of dollars. So my guess is Winnipeg water is collecting hundreds, thousands of dollars this route, which I don't think is fair."
Citing privacy reasons, the city said it wasn't able to comment on the specifics of Sharma's case. However in a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson writes:
"When the City agrees to a payment arrangement, we encourage customers to contact us prior to the payment date if an adjustment is required. Late payment charges of 1.5% monthly apply to the total overdue balance. Payments made prior to the applicable charge date would not be subject to this fee."
