ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When Brian Rosegger checked his St. Petersburg utility bill this month, he noticed something was off. When the bill seemed higher than his usual amount, he went and checked his water meter: low and behold, the numbers didn't match up.
“Initially I thought, worst case scenario I had a bad leak, so I checked into that and discovered I didn’t have any leaks and then I checked the meter reading with what was reported on my bill," Rosegger said. "On my latest bill, the meter was read on July 3, but when I checked it on Friday, July 12, nine days after they allegedly read it, it was 2,200 gallons less than what they had billed me for.”
City officials tell 10News there are around ninety-five thousand meters in the city and that sometimes mistakes are made when reading the meters. They acknowledged that Rosegger's case was likely human error and said they would send him a corrected billing statement as soon as possible.
But the incident serves as a reminder for everyone to double check your bills before paying them. The city has a system in place for billing disputes where residents can petition the city’s Utility Billing Review Committee if they think their bill is wrong. They can also have someone come out to make sure there’s not a leak on their property; and if they find a leak the city can work with residents to cut down the amount of the bill and set up a payment plan to get it resolved.
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