{"id":1506,"date":"2026-06-08T22:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:34:58","slug":"hidden-irrigation-leak-leaves-fort-lauderdale-homeowner-with-60000-water-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=1506","title":{"rendered":"Hidden irrigation leak leaves Fort Lauderdale homeowner with $60,000 water bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gisel Valdivia represents the owners of a Fort Lauderdale home. She says that after purchasing the property in 2024, their water bills were completely normal. But that changed on March 3.<\/p>\n

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“I received an email from the city stating, oh, you might have high consumption of water,” Valdivia said.<\/p>\n

When the bill arrived, the total exceeded $32,000. According to the City of Fort Lauderdale, between January 24 and February 23, the water meter recorded a leak of more than one million gallons of water from the home’s irrigation system. That’s enough water to fill approximately 65 residential swimming pools.<\/p>\n

Valdivia says she was traveling at the time and took action as soon as she returned. She shut off the water on March 20 and hired an irrigation company to investigate the problem. The company discovered what it described in its report as a “fully broken three-quarter-inch underground pipe” and repaired it on March 27. <\/p>\n

“And then March 30th, we submitted all paperwork saying, hey, we found it. We fixed it. We would like to get the credit,” Valdivia said.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, however, she received a second bill. This time, the total exceeded $60,000, including the original leak and another 950,000 gallons of water that the city says were recorded before the repair was completed. That amount of water could fill approximately 54 additional residential swimming pools. In total, the city billed more than two million gallons of water, enough to fill about 119 residential swimming pools. <\/p>\n

“I went to the city to request for adjustment,” Valdivia said.<\/p>\n

The city ultimately granted a credit of nearly $30,000, but she says that wasn’t enough. <\/p>\n

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“The math doesn’t add up,” Valdivia said.<\/p>\n

In a statement to NBC6 and Telemundo 51, the City of Fort Lauderdale said it reviewed the account and “confirmed the meter accurately recorded water usage tied to an underground irrigation leak that was later repaired.” The city added that after receiving documentation of the repair, it “applied the maximum leak adjustment permitted under city ordinance… a credit… of $29,557.82.”<\/p>\n

Linda Short, the City of Fort Lauderdale’s finance director, says the city uses a tiered billing system designed to encourage water conservation.<\/p>\n

“So the more you use, the higher the rate is per tier,” Short said. <\/p>\n

According to Short, once a leak is repaired, the city can adjust the bill by reducing the water charges to a lower rate tier. <\/p>\n

“We cannot just wipe the water out because the water actually left the system. But what we can do is lower the tier price,” Short said.<\/p>\n

The city says that is exactly what it did in this case. But Valdivia says she plans to continue disputing the charges because she still owes more than $30,000.<\/p>\n

“I’m not doing any payment plans because that is ridiculous,” Valdivia said.<\/p>\n

If you live in Fort Lauderdale and receive an unusually high water bill, you can request a review by calling the city’s utility department at 954-828-5150. The city also offers assistance programs and payment plans for qualifying customers.<\/p>\n

Read more Man accused of multiple Miami-Dade indecent exposure incidents gets elevated bond<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An underground irrigation leak at a Fort Lauderdale home resulted in water bills totaling more than $60,000. City officials say the meter accurately recorded\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nbc6-responds"],"yoast_head":"\nHidden irrigation leak leaves Fort Lauderdale homeowner with $60,000 water bill - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=1506\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hidden irrigation leak leaves Fort Lauderdale homeowner with $60,000 water bill - Jacksonville Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An underground irrigation leak at a Fort Lauderdale home resulted in water bills totaling more than $60,000. 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