{"id":777504,"date":"2026-05-06T15:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/777504\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:08:38","slug":"check-your-address-houston-public-works-admits-meter-mix-up-led-to-years-of-inaccurate-water-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/777504\/","title":{"rendered":"Check your address: Houston Public Works admits meter mix-up led to years of inaccurate water bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston<\/strong> \u2013 Houston water customers have dealt with a string of billing problems over the last four years \u2014 from rate increases to erroneous meter readings. Now, an investigation has uncovered yet another layer to those problems: hundreds of customers were billed for water they never used, because the city installed the wrong meters at their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently had a bill that was $683,\u201d said Brandon Citizen, a Houston water customer.<\/p>\n

Another customer described the shock of opening his bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I got a bill and I was like, \u2018Woah! This is, you know \u2014 this is a huge spike,\u2019\u201d said Charles Anyichie.<\/p>\n

Wrong meters, wrong bills<\/p>\n

Bottom line: <\/b>During a major push in 2024 to replace approximately 125,000 aging water meters and install remote-reading devices, Houston Public Works accidentally installed the wrong meters at hundreds of homes. The faulty equipment led to inaccurate water bills for multiple years \u2014 and most of the more than 600 affected customers had no idea why their bills were so high.<\/p>\n

Houston Public Works accidentally installed the wrong meters at hundreds of homes. The faulty equipment led to inaccurate water bills for multiple years \u2014 and most of the more than 600 affected customers had no idea why their bills were so high. (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Heather Laureles was among those customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting up to $300, $500, $700…\u201d Laureles said. \u201cWe have noticed water bills that were unusually high, and sometimes it doesn\u2019t make any sense compared to what water you\u2019re used to using.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tipster provided a list of all the addresses where the wrong meters were installed. The source was concerned the city was quietly swapping out the bad equipment without notifying customers \u2014 some of whom had been complaining about high bills for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, they should have sent some type of letter or email or something to let us know what\u2019s going on or what\u2019s causing this,\u201d Brandon Citizen said.<\/p>\n

A years-long timeline<\/p>\n

Brandon Citizen lives on Real Street in the Gulfgate area. Public Works installed the wrong meters at these homes in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Houston Public Works accidentally installed the wrong meters at hundreds of homes. The faulty equipment led to inaccurate water bills for multiple years \u2014 and most of the more than 600 affected customers had no idea why their bills were so high. (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Emails KPRC received through a public records request show the city discovered the error in January 2026.<\/p>\n

Crews replaced the meters in March 2026. <\/p>\n

Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi acknowledged the lapse in an April 15th KPRC interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day, no one from the city has said, \u2018Hey \u2014 it was the wrong equipment,\u2019\u201d KPRC\u2019s Amy Davis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah… that\u2019s a failure on our part in customer service,\u201d Macchi said.<\/p>\n

Macchi explained the error originated when a meter manufacturer shipped the wrong equipment in a large order at the end of 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey actually installed the wrong register on those water meters. The register they had was not compatible. And so that means the meter itself was registering either faster or slower than what actually took place,\u201d Macchi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless, what it means is the wrong equipment was in the ground. Wrong in terms of broken,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The bad meters were distributed across the city \u2014 from Kingwood to downtown Houston, near the airport, and on the southwest side.<\/p>\n

One customer\u2019s experience<\/p>\n

Charles Anyichie lives alone. His typical water usage runs about 2,000 gallons a month. But two months after the city installed the wrong meter at his home, his meter showed he used 7,000 gallons. Months later, it registered 11,000 gallons. Then, in February, his meter showed 15,000 gallons.<\/p>\n

Anyichie eventually stopped paying his bill \u2014 and that\u2019s when the water department called.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t calling me to say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve noticed your bill\u2019s getting high.\u2019 They were calling me to see exactly how was I going to make a payment?\u201d Anyichie said.<\/p>\n

When Amy Davis told Anyichie the city had already swapped out his faulty meter \u2014 without notifying him \u2014 he decided to call water customer service about his $1,900 balance with Amy listening in. <\/p>\n

Houston Public Works accidentally installed the wrong meters at hundreds of homes. The faulty equipment led to inaccurate water bills for multiple years \u2014 and most of the more than 600 affected customers had no idea why their bills were so high. (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The customer service representative suggested Anyichie check his toilet for a silent leak or fill out an adjustment form. After 14 minutes on the call, Anyichie asked a pointed question.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know if the city has made any changes to the water equipment recently?\u201d Anyichie asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cUmm… no, I\u2019m not sure of that. I wouldn\u2019t be able to answer that,\u201d the water department representative responded.<\/p>\n

Anyichie later reflected on the exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had no recollection on if they installed something new or not. She couldn\u2019t give me any information on if anything was faulty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The situation raised a key question: Should call center agents have been armed with the list of 637 addresses where faulty meters were installed \u2014 so they could immediately flag the issue when affected customers called?<\/b><\/p>\n

Macchi acknowledged the city\u2019s technology is a barrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is, from a technology standpoint, really still in the Stone Age when it comes to our customer database. Most of the time, when a customer calls in, the technology doesn\u2019t even allow our agents to have good information in front of them about what this customer\u2019s got going on, down to their billing history, down to the infrastructure in the ground, down to technician requests and service visits,\u201d Macchi said.<\/p>\n

Credits, closed accounts, what customers should do now<\/p>\n

The city is now calculating how much each of the 637 affected customers may have overpaid by comparing their average usage before the faulty meters were installed against what the broken equipment recorded \u2014 and crediting customers the difference.<\/p>\n

Anyichie received a credit of $825.05. Laureles will receive a credit of $623.09.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not insignificant. Wow,\u201d Laureles said.<\/p>\n

However, there is a complication. During door-knocking to notify residents of the meter mix-up, Amy Davis noticed many of the 637 homes are now listed for sale.<\/p>\n

Houston Public Works accidentally installed the wrong meters at hundreds of homes. The faulty equipment led to inaccurate water bills for multiple years \u2014 and most of the more than 600 affected customers had no idea why their bills were so high. (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo those customers, how would they ever get their money back?\u201d a reporter asked Macchi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a customer closes their account, it\u2019s going to be near impossible to do that. There won\u2019t be anything for us to give a credit back towards because the account\u2019s not open anymore,\u201d Macchi said.<\/p>\n

Macchi\u2019s advice: Do not close your water account until you have resolved any potential overpayment with the city.<\/p>\n

How to check if the wrong water meter was installed at your home<\/p>\n

The KPRC 2 Investigates team made an interactive map featuring all 637 addresses with the wrong equipment.<\/p>\n

You can also check addresses on this database.<\/p>\n

If your address is on the list and you have not received a notice from the city, contact the water department directly.<\/p>\n

Laureles said the situation is frustrating \u2014 especially for those who may never know they are owed money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel disappointed that that could happen to a lot of people who don\u2019t know that they\u2019re owed money by the city, or that their water bills have been inaccurate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Macchi said the city is working to do better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing the best we can to make sure that all of our agents have the information necessary to resolve your complaint. But if you feel like you\u2019re not being heard, it\u2019s not getting there \u2014 you can always escalate that. My contact information, in fact, is very public and accessible. Customers reach out to me and I\u2019m always happy to make sure that our team takes care of those customers\u2019 problems as quickly as we receive them,\u201d Macchi said.<\/p>\n

\u2018DRAINED\u2019 Houston water department Investigation<\/b><\/p>\n

Led by KPRC 2 Investigator Amy Davis, our investigation spent years shedding light on overbilling<\/a>, faulty water meters<\/a>, and mismanagement of city contracts<\/a>. These discoveries led to the arrest and charges for seven people and an overhaul of how the entire water billing system works. <\/p>\n

SEE MORE:<\/b> Everything you need to know about the \u2018DRAINED\u2019 KPRC Investigation <\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston \u2013 Houston water customers have dealt with a string of billing problems over the last four years…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":777505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[57920,4345,16844,358,3187],"class_list":["post-777504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-drained","tag-houston","tag-investigates","tag-texas","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116528264512929177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}