"City of Monroe...meet my lawyer!"
I'd move.
Notice I said my EX-husband...
It's a "city Policy", not a law...
Take it to court..
Obviously Bush is ruining our economy. Halliburton is involved somehow, too.
Last year my MIL who lives in a single family bungalow in Chicago got a monthly Electric Bill (ComEd) for ....... $94,000!!
I called ComEd for her, explained that it was utterly ridiculous and that the electric bill for Sears Tower's probably wasn't that much. BUT the first thing the lady said was .... "did I check to verify the meter reading indicated on the bill was right". I said no and plus I didn't care WHAT the meter reading was, $94,000 was an IMPOSSIBLILITY. She finally agreed to void 'that' bill until they could get another meter reader person out to her house. Two months later she received a corrected bill for $42.00
I swear, the world is full of idiots and they ALL work for the gubmint and utility companies.
Umm..... no it doesn't work that way.
It's called the 'Monroe Meter Hustle" !!!
I think that the owner ought to pay this IF indeed he used the excess power AND IF the utility company can produce some sort of proof that he actually used that much more power. I always think you should pay for what you use. But here, did they know when the meter broke? If it's a clear case of the meter having been installed with the wrong setting, so it logged 2 KWH when it should have logged 3 KWH, then fine. But if it went defective some time during the last three years, and this was the utility's best guess, I'd negotiate something else with them, as they probably took the point of view that benefitted them the most... So in principle, I'm not against him having to pay, but I think he needs to check to make sure that the revision is indeed accurate.
"had been under-registering for almost a decade.
"
Does that mean it never resulted in a bill? If so, how could he possibly not pay any utilities bills? I say he would owe back bills.
Yikes! How the heck do you rack up a $800 Utility bill? Use 1000 Watt Floods in every socket?
But in response to the Title Question, if I got a $11,000 Utility Bill, I'd think their Accounts Payable was in cahoots with the Accounts Receivable and cross-checked their notes on me to extract financial revenge for all of the work I've done for many over the years.
And by the way I just added 25% to my consumption last week so don't try to prove anything with usage records.
The simple and obvious solution, if in fact it was underregistering through no fault of the businessman, would be to pro-rate the amount of the undercharge over the following three years, without interest. The owner would be paying for what he received, but would not be unduly burdened by the utility's mistake.
Goodbye to one more independent business.
Like our communist legislators in Arkansas - these "good ole boys" cannot get it into their pin-head brains (if any) that when tax revenues go DOWN from a falling economy, you don't raise the taxes and then wonder why the revenues fell even lower!
A vicious cycle that lawyer/politicians fall into - then if all else fails --- SUE! To hell with the "WORK ETHIC"
Why shouldn't your barber or local eatery be able to decide they should have asked you for more during the last 3 years and send you a bill for the difference? The city sold him a product, they set the price and he agreed on it, the deal was done, now they want more. No other business but govt. would be allowed to get away with this absent any evidence of fraud.
The first question his lawyer should ask the city is if they have ever refunded money from over charging a customer. I bet not. Silly question.
They can't ethically charge him for power they can't show he actually used. At best they're guessing based on current data which may not reflect use during the period in question.
A bill like this could put him out of business especially since we know they'll nag him to death, get a lien and who knows what else to collect.
The only "gotcha" is he should've had some reason to know the meter was wrong such as a sudden plunge in his bill about TEN years ago. Even then, it's been so long that could be explained by any number of things including rate changes, hours of operation fluctuations, expansion, remodeling, change in appliances, etc., etc.
He most certainly needs a lawyer to protect his rights because I can guarantee he'll get "screwed" by the city.
Wow! Gas Stations could have a field day with this ditty!