A single Aussie man has been hit with a $15,000 water bill after a council claimed he had used more than 35,000 liters a day for the past 104 days.
Anthony lives on his own in the Southern Tablelands of NSW with a modest garden, fish pond and workshop at the back.
He said his bill is normally around $290 and he uses about 130 liters of water per day, which is the amount Sydney Water estimates an average person will use.
Anthony was completely shocked when he received a water bill for $15,645.86 from Goulburn Mulwaree Council.
Anthony (pictured right) lives on his own in the Southern Tablelands of NSW with a modest garden, fish pond and workshop at the back
“A water bill of 15.5 thousand dollars, they can be taken in,” he said A current issue.
“I’m not paying for it, no way.”
A bout with cancer has left the local mechanic struggling to communicate, so his father Neil went to a council meeting with his son and tried to speak on his behalf.
“I couldn’t believe it when he showed me the bill,” Neil said.
“Right now we’re at a stage at this point where we can’t get any reasonable common sense from the council.
“I said, ‘It must be the error meter,’ and she said, ‘We had a lot of meters tested and they all came back positive.’
“And I said, ‘What about this meter?’ and she said, “It’ll cost you $50 to get it tested, but there’s nothing wrong with it.”
The council then told the father that they would have to pay $50 if they wanted to have Anthony’s meter tested.
He has received numerous emails from Goulburn Mulwaree Council asking him to prove he had not used that much water.
He is accused of using more than 3.6 million liters of water, which is the equivalent of filling two Olympic-sized swimming pools – or having five taps open all day.
He has received numerous emails from Goulburn Mulwaree Council asking him to prove he had not used that much water, which is the equivalent of filling two Olympic swimming pools or running five taps every day.
Anthony said he received a notice of overdue invoices ordering him to pay them immediately.
“I got an email saying I could get a payment plan and everything else… like, be realistic,” he said.
“I’m not going to pay it.”
Neil explained that Anthony uses his own water tank to water his lawn, fill his fish pond and wash his car. He said his son has had to deal with a “ridiculous amount” of using only city water for washing dishes and showering.
Anthony has been asked to prepare a detailed letter about his water use, which will be presented at a council meeting later this month.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Goulburn Mulwaree Council for comment.