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[dolljepopp]

Stressful week topped by stressful night...

I have an article that has been accepted for publication in a moderately visible peer-reviewed journal and I am later than I should be on getting the final edited version back to them.  Finishing that up was to be project number one tonight.  Project number two was filling out the governmental form so I can turn it in tomorrow morning at the tax office so that I will have a tax number and the place where I have been freelancing can pay me in time to make rent.  (The form is in the local language, which I speak and read, but bureaucratic Freedonian is, well, bureaucratic...)

So, during a lovely chat with the SO on Skype, because we aren't rich and we live in different countries, my mobile rings.  I don't recognise the number, so I don't answer it.  I call it back after the SO and I are finished with our chat.  It was my landlord.  She doesn't speak any English.

She is a little upset.

She says she has been trying to reach me for a few days.  I don't doubt her -- she hasn't left a voice mail, but I sometimes have my mobile on silent, so I miss a call now and then.  She says my water bill has increased -- that I use three times the amount of water than a normal person.  Have I been using the apartment as a sauna?  (No.)  We have to meet on Thursday to "discuss" it.

I'm worried.  I can't afford to be socked with an enormous bill.  Water is included in my rent and I have been in this apartment for a year-and-a-half.  There has been no previous phone call to this effect.

My habits have not changed.  I shower in the morning -- OK, possibly longer than the average Freedonian, but not necessarily and not much longer in any event.  Certainly not for more than your average ten or fifteen minutes and often less.  I wash my dishes.  That's about it.  I drink mostly bottled water.

My SO has visited only once since we got together four months ago.  (Landlord asked if I had someone living with me now.)  I usually go there -- my work schedule is pretty flexible and her apartment is bigger.  I'm gone almost every other weekend.  I had a week-long trip to the States last month.  I've had non-girlfriend overnight visitors less than a dozen nights in a year-and-a-half. 

I have no clue why costs have apparently tripled and am a little freaked out that I may be expected suddenly to come up with a thousand extra Euros I definitely do not have.

I called a friend who owns an apartment he lets out and discussed what the options are.  It takes years to evict someone here, so I can stay as long as I pay rent, but if she can prove that I actually have somehow tripled my water usage, I'm screwed for the money.

Is there a landlord gene?  I am a good tenant.  I pay my rent on time, don't deal drugs, throw parties, throw furniture out the window, pee in the hall, etc.  I'm fairly quiet.  I am mostly here to sleep.  But I have had dreadful luck with landlords -- going back seemingly decades.  I don't really remember one who didn't turn out to be a little looney or money-grubbing or flatly criminal (I lived in NYC for a few years...)

This one seemed OK.  She's retired, a widow, nice.  The first year I had to take her rent in cash because it's difficult to set up a bank account here.  She even had me over during the holidays to have dinner with her and her daughter and grandson.

Yeah, I know, buy, don't rent.  Not an option -- not yet anyway.

OK, just needed to blow off a little fear steam.  Better now.  It will be OK.  Back to the article...

[tamiam]

This, doll, is displacement stress.

This is like my stressing out about travel plans when I should be studying for my prelims.

All will be well. Get back to that revision, after you jog just as fast as you can around the block a few times to release the adrenaline.

[dolljepopp]

Thanks tam!  And you stop fretting about your travels -- hit those books!

[spork]

It could be a leaky toilet.  Do you hear any noise from the tank?

[dolljepopp]

No, it seems to work pretty well. It has always run a little bit, but the handle jiggle fixes it and I am always very good about making sure.

[dept_geek]

Can I suggest that a call to a plumber might be in order? If your usage has shot up & it wasn't you, maybe there is a leak somewhere between your meter and your toothbrush.  The cheap college student in me also wonders of someone didn't tap off your line somewhere.  (Common with cable & phone, maybe also plumbing? Probably not. But check)

[dolljepopp]

Thanks, dept_geek, that's a great idea.  My friend thought of the leak and siphoning possibilities as well, although he thought the siphoning would be difficult at best.  He also gave me a list of questions to ask her.  I like the idea of a plumber to check everything out.

[scotia]

I assume there must be a water meter somewhere. Is it something you can find? Can you check that the reading changes only when you use water and not when you are out? I once lived in an apartment block where the local council had, they claim inadvertently, attached their street light to our stairway lighting meter. The resident physicist and I had to demonstrate what was happening by showing that the meter reading was continuing to rise even after we had removed all the light bulbs on the stair.

[dolljepopp]

I went looking for it earlier tonight -- behind locked doors, apparently.  I will ask the maintenance guy when he is here Wednesday.

[brunhilde]

Toilet leaks can be silent and not noticeable. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and see if the water in the bowl changes color in a few hours. You can also draw a line at the top of the water in the tank and check in a few hours if it is at the same spot.

There could be a leak in a pipe somewhere or maybe the water heater? I've only experienced toilet and faucet leaks. Faucet leaks are pretty noticeable when the house is quiet (such as when you try to go to bed).

[dolljepopp]

Thanks brunhilde (great new name, btw) and everyone for the terrific suggestions.  I realised this morning that I actually know a lawyer here who specialises in tenant-landlord issues.  I doubt it will be necessary, but it's nice to know, just in case...

[prytania3]

Thanks brunhilde (great new name, btw) and everyone for the terrific suggestions.  I realised this morning that I actually know a lawyer here who specialises in tenant-landlord issues.  I doubt it will be necessary, but it's nice to know, just in case...

Well, who was Brunhilde? And Dollje, I think your landlord is pulling a fast one. There's a leak somewhere--you really need to find it.

[anthroid]

My first reaction was that it is a meter mis-read.  It ought to be checked again.  A leak is possible too, of course.  But landlady ought to be fixing the problem, not scaring you half to death!

[illuminata]

It prb is a leak- or a shifty water co. meter reader. Not uncommon in lots of places. The landlady is prb freaked out herself bc she is ultimately responsible for the bill. She prb doesn't have the cash either. Be sure to tell her you're on her side in finding the origin of the problem. Making her the 'enemy' won't help anything.
Remember to let us know what you find...like a huge Freedonian black market for water?

[dolljepopp]

It prb is a leak- or a shifty water co. meter reader. Not uncommon in lots of places. The landlady is prb freaked out herself bc she is ultimately responsible for the bill. She prb doesn't have the cash either. Be sure to tell her you're on her side in finding the origin of the problem. Making her the 'enemy' won't help anything.

The meter readers are public employees, so who knows?  (They make more than I do and have a MUCH better retirement package, though...)

Good advice -- I know she is probably upset about the money.  She is not a rich woman -- owns a couple of small flats and her own place is nice, but no palace.

I did find a meter and checked it before I left this morning and tonight when I returned -- no change.  So it's not an all-day, non-stop leak anyway...

Remember to let us know what you find...like a huge Freedonian black market for water?

Maybe.  Although there is a rather large river running through the center of town that's clean enough that restaurants serve fish out of it, so I wouldn't think it would be a very lucrative trade.