Colett Ricketts was bamboozled when the National Water Commission (NWC) sent her a bill last December for over $220,000.

For starters, she said the two-bedroom apartment in Ironshore, St James, had been vacant since the end of August 2021, as her parents travelled to visit her in Canada.

While contesting what she deems a gross overcharge, Ricketts paid $10,000. However, the water was disconnected on Wednesday, leaving her elderly parents, who returned in January, without supply. On Friday, Ricketts had no choice but to pay $126,700, after a representative told her she had to pay at least half of the amount to have the supply restored.

“The agency just disconnected my water even though I paid them $10,000 on February 11, 2022, while I am disputing a jump from a bill that was consistently less than $1,000 monthly to $223,000 for a two-bedroom apartment in a one-month period, while I was not in the country. I paid $10,000, hoping for someone to see some kind of logical reason as to what is happening,” Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

“However, my parents just informed me that while they were in the unit today (Wednesday), someone came by and turned off the water. I am at my wits’ end; I don’t have $230,000 to donate to NWC and no one appears to be listening. I was not in the country, and no one was in the apartment, so it was impossible to use over $223,000 in water for an empty apartment,” she lamented.

The Sunday Observer obtained copies of bills sent by the NWC to Ricketts between September and December of last year.

On a bill dated September 20, 2021, she was charged $1,141 for the period August 16 to September 15.

A bill dated November 23, 2021 – for October 15 to November 12 – showed that Ricketts had a balance brought forward of $231,042.74.

“I thought it was an error because I was not even in the country and if you review my billing history, there has never been anywhere close to that amount of water used at the apartment. To have an outstanding balance of $231,000 transferred when I did not carry over a balance does not make sense. I don’t even see how the entire condo community could use that much water in a month, much less a two-bedroom empty condo unit,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“There are ground keepers that would have told us if there was an issue. I can have the guard confirm there was no one in the condo at that time. I told them I would send my passport and my parents’ to show that no one was in the apartment. I asked the property manager to check to see if there were any leaks, and there were no leaks. I have regularly paid my bills and in full.”

Ricketts said she did not receive a bill for the September to October period. She also provided an e-mail she sent to the company’s e-mail, inquiring about the same bill.

“This is my second request; can someone kindly send me a copy of the November 2021 bill for this apartment?” she wrote in an e-mail dated March 4, 2022.

Ricketts had been communicating via the same e-mail address with a contact centre agent who signed off on e-mails with “S Dixon” prior to that.

“Hello, can you check the balance on that account please, because I have not used the apartment in the last 60 days and the water was turned off,” she wrote in an e-mail dated November 25, 2021.

Then on December 15, the contact centre agent responded, “In regards to your query, based on checks done on the account, we are seeing where for your August to September billing period, your meter registered 500,000 liters of water used for which the account was billed. We are seeing where the premise was visited on the 9th of September 2021, and the reading of 878 was verified along with the working condition of the meter. However, for the readings done in October, November, and December, the meter has been showing zero consumption.”

Ricketts explained to the Sunday Observer that there was zero consumption because no one had been in the apartment since the end of August.

“So, no one was around to use the water and the pipes inside the apartment had been turned off just as a safety measure. Regarding the August to September bill, I was in the country for a total of seven days during that period, and then I shut off the water when I left. Based on my Jamaica Public Service (JPS) bills for that period, as additional proof, no one was in the apartment.”

Copies of bills sent by JPS to Ricketts show that on September 8, she was charged $16,457 for the period August 7 to September 6.

On October 9, she was charged $2,932 for September 6 to October 7. On November 8, $2,758, for October 7 to November 6; and on December 10, $2,620 for November 6 to December 7.

“My February bill showcases the jump in electricity following my parents returning home on January 17,” she said.

The bill dated February 6, 2022, showed a charged of $8,212 for January 5 to February 4.

Further, the NWC contact agent had indicated that an inspection had to be done for the zero consumptions. A picture of the reading on the meter was requested from Ricketts.

“I told the representative that my elderly parents would be returning home in January and would provide a meter reading at that time. My parents returned home in mid-January, looked at the meter and it had an error code. I conveyed that message again to the representative and was told that, that is the meter reading so that is what is due,” Ricketts recalled.

Ricketts sent pictures on January 21 at 4:39 pm. However, on February 16, another contact centre agent, who signed off an e-mail with “E Rowe,” told Ricketts, “We recommend that you apply for a payment arrangement. Please note that the timeline to utilise the attached meter reading has passed. Therefore, the readings are no longer valid.”

On Thursday morning, the Sunday Observer relayed Ricketts’ dilemma to Andrew Canon, corporate communications manager of the NWC. Canon asked for Ricketts’ contact, which was provided.

When the Sunday Observer contacted Canon and expressed Ricketts’s concern as to whether she’d be reimbursed after an investigation, he said, “Let me not comment on that until I see all the details of the case.”