Application Corner: Overbilling water meters

Technical work in legal cases is often quite interesting as one tries to solve a mystery after the fact with little available evidence. Sometimes, the drama plays out like a whodunit on television with the periodic appearance of information, which may or may not be true or relevant.

The invoiced amount of water in a repurposed office building (built originally as a garage) increased well over 10-fold a few years prior to my being contacted. The building owner complained to the water authority about the excessive billings and questioned the water meter, only to receive replies that everything was OK. The building’s meter was examined during my site visit. Many questions were asked and (importantly) their answers were taken seriously. During the discussion, someone mentioned that part of the building was fed by another meter, so off we went to examine the other meter. Both meters appeared to be installed properly.

The next activity was to gather all the information, documents and data that existed. This consisted of the meters’ nameplate data, installation details, correspondence and approximately 13 years of quarterly water invoices for each meter. Interestingly, the account titles for both meters were identical until recently. A cursory examination revealed that one meter had estimated invoices for three years, after which the invoiced flow went negative and then mushroomed. According to the building owner, the invoiced flow through the other meter should have been lower than the first meter, but it was higher. One of the meters was replaced approximately two years prior to my visit, so it was not readily available for inspection. Interestingly, its serial number on invoices mysteriously moved from one account to the other at approximately the same time.

Does this sound complicated… or what?