I have received the municipal account from the CoCT based on the wrong water meter reading (they charge me for 27m3 instead of 7). I could not find any working process to query this on line or over the phone. Do I really have to go to their offices? Anybody from CT with experience how to sort this out?

Payment terms are 60 days if I recall. Short-pay them this month, wait for the credit note next month. Assuming of course the reading really is incorrect and you don't have a leak you don't know about. That is what I would do.

42 minutes ago, Fuenkli said:

I have received the municipal account from the CoCT based on the wrong water meter reading (they charge me for 27m3 instead of 7). I could not find any working process to query this on line or over the phone. Do I really have to go to their offices? Anybody from CT with experience how to sort this out?

Email them. Thye have sorted a lot of issues for me via email over the years.

1 hour ago, plonkster said:

Assuming of course the reading really is incorrect and you don't have a leak

I was also worried about this. Can you imagine while we still flush the toilets with shower and washing machine water and then loosing 4 month worth of water through a leak ☹️. I was so relieved when I found out that the meter reading was wrong.

1 hour ago, Fuenkli said:

I was also worried about this. Can you imagine while we still flush the toilets with shower and washing machine water and then loosing 4 month worth of water through a leak ☹️. I was so relieved when I found out that the meter reading was wrong.

CoCT is a nightmare to deal with on water, and yes, you have to go into the offices eventually and poke people to do their job.

I went through this at the end of 2017.  In my case the leak (if you have one) was clearly visible as it ran out into the street, but I didn't see it until R4600 of water had escaped down the drain the morning after it had sprung.

This happened around New Year, and though CoCT eventually came and fixed it as the problem was their side (about five days after being reported to them and me being with no water) their tune was to pay the money until the dispute was resolved.  I refused on principal (or is that principle), but had to go into the offices to declare I didn't have the money to cover the cost of the water.  I kid you not, the agreement I had to sign was a quarter of an inch thick with supporting three month bank statements required nogal.

Then I had to go into the offices for a further five months to poke people to sort out the dispute.

So, I feel your pain.

Now I read my meter every month and note it on my bill from CoCT, which also includes their reading.  So you might want to check your meter and what CoCT has measured on your bill.

Also, if you have a leak on your side of the meter, you can get a rebate on the charge per kilolitre given water restrictions but I am not sure how all that works, so it is something you want to look into...

1 minute ago, IdlePhaedrus said:

so it is something you want to look into

 

as mentioned above, the high water consumption was fortunately the result of wrong meter reading by the CoCT and not a leak. Your advice to check the meter regularly is very good. From now on I will also submit the meter reading to the city myself.  

21 hours ago, IdlePhaedrus said:

CoCT is a nightmare to deal with on water, ...

I won't disagree but there are success stories also.

We had a dispute before the drought about our meter. CoCT promptly replace it at their cost, acknowledging a problem. No, we did not argue the wrong bill, it was still cheap water.
However, next moment we got a R8k bill. We paid the R8k for I knew we are not going to win arguing with the financial department, an invoice is a invoice.
And I'm NOT going to stand in a queue no! Email, not that works for me.
Lady on the other side of my emails did her level best. Even sending screenshots of what she sees and low and behold, together we found the issue: System glitch in swapping meters.
Finance department was informed. Couple of weeks later R8k refund. 

This was the 2nd time I had a chat with CoCT via email. First time was a W/L deposit we had to get refunded on a house we rented. Also was no problem via email.

I keep on emailing until I get that person on the other side who wants to help. So far, 100% success rate.

Like my daughter at times tells me: Dad, use your words!
I can now say: People, use your email!

21 hours ago, Fuenkli said:

Your advice to check the meter regularly is very good. From now on I will also submit the meter reading to the city myself.  

With our new water meter I saw it has a transmitter. These new meters have some serious functionality built into them. 1000's of homes can be monitored from one reader in a suburb, even close them flow if a leak is detected. German ingenuity. 

Long story short, I'm waiting on the company who imports and sells them to Munic's to get their new data reader on the market so that one can see inside the house what flows through the meter. No jokes. Got that info when I asked them if I can please have the specs to have one built to record my own water readings.

That took but two emails to the manufacturer in Germany who used the serial no of the meter to tell me who they sold it to in SA. So one of these months I will have a water reader inside the house. 👍