TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Jennifer Hill loves her Peterbrooke Chocolatier Tampa store, which is on the ground floor of SkyPoint Condominiums. But she says she may be forced out because of high water bills.
We’re not just talking a little high. Her bills went from around $40 a month for years to more than $700. Hill says bills started ticking up last fall. The management company that handles billing for her landlord, she says, promised answers, but the bills kept going up.
“Chocolate and water do not mix,” Hill said. “We use extremely hot water to sanitize the countertops and things like that so that’s maybe a gallon of water there and dishes of course, so maybe we use 12 gallons there.”
Hill rents space on the bottom floor of SkyPoint Condominium. The management company pays the city water bill for the entire complex and residents and commercial tenants are supposed to be billed for their share.
Hill says she complained of the high bills and maintenance workers confirmed there were no leaks.
“They indicated that the meter was running when I was not in the business and nothing was on and nobody was in here therefore no water could be running, which is indicative of me being metered for someone else’s water that’s being used at that time.”
Hill says she was told months ago that this was being looked into, but her latest bill was $738 for 41,660 gallons of water.
Fearing she’ll have to close her store, Hill called Better Call Behnken. The president of the condo association, which oversees water metering, said he agrees that the chocolate store’s water bills don’t seem right. He promised an investigation to find out what’s wrong.
The condo association president said the water flow is being tested and and the association wants to make this right because they don’t want the chocolate store to move out of the building.
