FORT MILL, S.C. — Residents of a Fort Mill neighborhood are upset after several families reported receiving sewer bills for the month of March charging them $1,000 or even $2,000.
Kevin Connolly has lived in Sutton Place for more than 10 years, and despite living alone with his wife and paying his bills on time, he was charged $2,139.39 in March.
“They cannot convince me, they cannot show the technical data, to support that bill," Connolly said. "They can’t."
Connolly said for the last few years, he struggled with his sewer bill regularly jumping between $80 and $180, but he never imagined being charged more than $2,000.
He believes the numbers are wrong.
“It shows the usage was 150,800 gallons, which that’d almost be enough for a city,” Connolly said.
The City of Fort Mill said the numbers are accurate, explaining that human error caused some of the manual readers in the city to be misread for months at a lower usage rate. Now the town is collecting money it failed to collect in the past.
In a statement shared with WCNC Charlotte, a spokesperson for the city said:
“The Town of Fort Mill recently discovered some isolated higher than normal utility bills. The Town has taken appropriate action to address this situation.
In the past three years, the Town has improved its utility billing system by replacing our water meters with new technologically advanced meters throughout our water system. These meters were designed to send real-time information to improve the quality of service for our customers and reduce billing errors. Out of our entire water and sewer system, there are only 450 meters that still require a manual read. We have a relationship with an independent water system in the affected area that requires meters to be read manually.
This billing issue was researched, and we found that some accounts in the affected area were read incorrectly at a lower usage amount than what was actually used due to human error. We understand the affect these increased charges can have on a household budget and we are working with each individual account to lessen the burden of these charges. We value our customers and appreciate their patience on this matter.”
Resident Heather Morris, who was charged more than $1,500, doesn’t buy that explanation. She said when her husband reached out to the city, he was told the family could make six payments of about $250 to pay off the credit.
"They just said that we were undercharged in the past and now they’re making up for it," Morris said. "But who undercharged? Why were we undercharged? We’ve been told some people were let go, but very little information."
Another resident, Giovanni Berloni, has amassed two binders showing issues he says he’s had with both his water and sewer bills. Berloni, who was charged about $2,000 on his March bill, said there’s something wrong with the system if his family of four is expected to pay that amount.
“I would be willing to pay if I used it,” Berloni said. “The problem is I didn’t use it. That’s what makes me so angry.”
The city of Fort Mill did not respond to our request for an interview, but it did answer some of the questions we sent, including saying, “Billing amounts are based on actual usage by the customer. The Town understands the burden of these charges being billed in one month versus across several months. Because the usage accumulated over several months, the Town is offering an extension of payment for these amounts over a six-month period.”
Thursday, Fort Mill Mayor Guynn Savage said the city would go back and recalculate what the households where charged. The mayor said around 450 homes in Fort Mill were undercharged due to human error and the city is now trying to get that money back.
The mayor said families won’t be relieved of the payments, but the city will work to make sure what families pay is accurate to what they used.
“To try and find a way to make it equitable to them because they used the services but to make a bill that’s cumulative to that point – it’s very difficult particularly in the economic times that we all face," Savage said. "We’re all in this community together and we’re very sad that this has occurred, but we’re working hard to rectify it and make it correct.”
The mayor said the city is still trying to figure out how long customers were reportedly undercharged. She did say customers are not expected to pay the bills right now until the city calculates everything.
Contact Indira Eskieva at ieskieva@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.