$6,000 Water Bill Shocks Philadelphia Woman - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

$6,000 Water Bill Shocks Philadelphia Woman

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PHILADELPHIA -

A homeowner gets a shocking hefty water bill.

Philadelphia customers, check your statements because it's possible this could happen to you, FOX 29's Lauren Cohn explains.

Marianne Sparta got quite a surprise when she received a bill for more than $6,000 from the water company.

The water company says Sparta's meter had not been registering from April of 1998 through November of 2012. That's 14 years.

Sparta says she sent the water department a check every month. But they say she had only been paying for service, not usage, since 1998.

The $6,447.18 charge has Sparta outraged.

"I just don't know how they came up with that figure. and I think after all these years, I know we would owe them something but really I feel the water company needs to step up and we shouldn't be responsible for that enormous sum"

The water company also admits they did not catch the error until they installed a new meter in August of this year.

The water department also says, "We are in the midst of changing batteries to automatic meter readers so that everyone is getting accurate bills. Sometimes when we go out we are finding more problems like this."

Sparta's next step is a hearing with the water department.

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