Dear Claudienne,

My brother and I currently reside in Canada and are responsible for the utilities for a property previously owned by my father in Portmore, St Catherine. My brother pays the bills promptly every month. This property is currently occupied by our deaf/mute sister and her 14-year-old son. It is a two-bedroom dwelling.

On May 5, 2023 an NWC bill of $4,387.21 (attached) was received. This was promptly paid. On June 5, 2023 we received a bill for $3,149, 471.44 (image attached). This was shocking to us, given the bill of the previous month. We reached out to the NWC office in both Spanish Town and Portmore via our cousin and have been “given the run around”. We were told that there is a possible leak at the property. We had the property inspected by Eval Walcott, Plumb-tech Plumbing and Solar Heating Services, and his findings are that there is no leak (See attached inspection report). He also found the meter to be defective. Please see the attached video which shows that any motion near the meter causes it to spin and register as if water is being used. I had passed all of this information to the NWC, to at least two contacts, but no action was taken. Instead, we were told we had to pay $10,000 to have the property inspected by an NWC representative (I call this extortion since three NWC employees visited the property and did absolutely nothing). In any case, the $10,000 (attached receipt) was paid and the property inspected by another NWC representative. That person’s conclusion was, also, that there was no leak.

After all this, our expectation were that:

1. The erroneous bill would be rescinded

2. We would be sent an estimate based on the previous bills

3. A new meter would have been installed at the property

4. New readings would be taken from this new meter to provide us with a more accurate bill.

Instead of the above, what we got was a bill for $3,109,915.40. Amusingly but shockingly, the water charge is $163, 918.47 and the sewage charge is $189,319.28. It seems there is no oversight at the NWC and there is no urgency to replace this obviously defective meter. Will we be extorted again to pay another $10K to the NWC’s coffers?

Is it possible you can help us to rectify this almost three-month nightmare?

DF

Dear DF,

Tell Claudienne has been in communication with the NWC about your concerns. The NWC spokesman said that reconstruction work has been done at the property and the house has been re-piped. You wrote to the column on July 15, 2023 and Tell Claudienne notes that on September 21, 2023 you received the following email from the customer relations manager at the NWC’s office at the Portmore Mall, St Catherine.

“The details of the account have been revisited, carefully scrutinised, and the reconciliation as requested by you revealed that the charges are deemed accurate. An actual meter reading was not obtained over a period of six months — that is from October 2022 until April 2023. In five instances we found that the meter was covered, and when the meter became accessible the reading collected indicated the possibility of an anomaly.

“Note that although the meter was not accessible — hence no fault of the National Water Commission (NWC) why it was not read — we are not seeing where such occurrences were communicated to the occupants and as such, we will honour our commitment to not giving more than two consecutive estimated bills, and will apply the requisite compensation.

“The meter daily activity log was retrieved and the said log recorded that there was (Error alarm for Leakage- A5) continuous flow on the premises from October 31, 2023 through to February 14, 2024. Also, as you know, an accuracy test was carried out on the meter, witnessed by your representative, and the meter passed the test. Suffice to say the meter accurately registered the volume of water that passed through it. We therefore have no premise of internal error on which to reduce the charges billed to the account.

“Notwithstanding the foregoing, The NWC is not oblivious to the fact that $2,731,754.97 is not that easy to afford, hence we are not averse to discussing a mutually benefiting settlement of the stated amount.”

Tell Claudienne notes that in an appeal to the OUR you have challenged “the accuracy of the NWC calculations”.

“I am a Canadian citizen and I will be informing the OUR that I will be asking my government representative in Canada to pursue the matter,” you told the column on Thursday, October 30, 2025.

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 876- 936-9436 or CELL/whatsapp # 876-484-1349 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please
include a contact phone number.