Asheville homeowner hires attorney after water bill spikes to ‘mortgage payment size’

By Marc Liverman

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — An Asheville homeowner is sharing his story after being charged more than 18 times his average water bill.

Robert Ahern feels he is being treated so unfairly by the Water Resources Department, he has hired an attorney.

I was shocked. I was absolutely shocked, and I thought: ‘Wow, they just feel like they can do whatever they want with complete impunity,'” said Ahern, who was bashed with a bill big enough to be a mortgage payment.

Ahern’s initial water charges in late July were more than $1,100. After the department gave him a one-time adjustment, his bill still came out to more than $635.

“The highest water bill I’ve ever had was 61 bucks and now they’re charging me 635,” he said.

The city told Ahern that its meters are failing, with a plan to replace all 63,000 of them through 2025.

“I said: ‘Well if they’re failing, couldn’t the reading have been wrong?’ You’re telling me it jumped 220 CCFs in 60 days?” he said.

Ahern has decided to hire an attorney to fight these charges.

“They can’t just go around taking advantage of people. It’s not right and I’m willing to spend the money because it’s not right,” Ahern said.

On Wednesday, News 13 took these concerns to the department responsible.

We definitely apologize for any inconvenience because with confusion often comes inconvenience, and we’re certainly sympathetic to that,” said Clay Chandler, public information officer with the Asheville Water Resources Department.

Chandler explained that more meters are starting to die, so while the city works to replace them, they are forced to do manual readings on some.

“Obviously, that takes a lot more time to gather readings than it does when a reader is sending information to us through a transmitter,” Chandler said.

The project has slowed the entire billing process down, leading to confusion and frustration as the department is now rushing to play catch up. It is still working to replace two-thirds of the original meters.

“We are dedicating every available resource to making sure this project goes as quickly as possible,” Chandler said.

The silver lining to the issue is that all new meters are expected to have a shelf life of 20 years – double the life of those being replaced.

This may sound like good news, but Ahern feels differently.

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