I wonder if it was the neighbor who tapped their water supply to her house?

She should get free water for life.

My friend lives in a tiny 3 bedroom house with 2 others. They only water 15 minutes a week, at 3 am. They do dishes by hand, and laundry once every week or two. Nobody takes long showers. They cannot find any obvious water leaks or wet areas in the house or yard.

We live in a HUGE house with a pool. We watered every day for 30 minutes all summer, and used our old dishwasher after hand rinsing, and did 3 loads of laundry a week. I'm home all day, flushing and washing my hands, rinsing dishes, etc. We have a water leak in one bathroom.

Our water bill was $350, hers was $750!! I've been encouraging her to call DWP to have them come out and tell her why her water costs are so much higher than mine!

You should show her this news, so she can call the DWP.

Dude, could you imagine how much it sucked for her to watch her neighbor have a water balloon fight? Ennnnnvvvvvvvyyyyyy

Are you kidding me?!?!?!

I bet the neighbor's reaction went alittle something like this...

(while waving to the lady) "Burn."

I can't believe this! I agree with meggysue that the woman should get free water for life. If that doesn't happen, I hope she gets a huge settlement and buys her own personal water tower.

Then again, look to the masthead to decide whether the whole story's been told.

If it was 320 pounds a year (as like the first year) that's a bit over 5000 pounds she paid. If her neighbor was using 3/4 of the water, that means she overpaid by about 3,800 pounds.
She's asking 10,000 in compensation for water and mental anguish - that seems very fair, especially accounting for inflation, and I'm surprised the water company doesn't just settle it out of court.

"'Since then, we have offered to go back through Mrs Shaw's bills to work out if she has been over or undercharged - something which she has declined."

Why should she? If it goes to court, she'll get a lot more money, and the water company will have to pay legal fees.

Wow, $350? Really? A month or every 3 months? My water bill hasent ever gone over $100 for the 3 months, even in the summer when I let the kids play on the slip n sllide, and when the hose got left on all day and all night, and half of the next day. Our toilet runs too. Must be location.