Retired LA nurse, Vietnam vet husband slapped with nearly $10K water bill over utilitys broken meter

A retired Southern California nurse and her Vietnam War veteran husband are being forced to pay nearly $10,000 for their water bill over a meter that had been broken for years.Joyce Howell, 82, said she and her husband have lived in their Los Angeles home since the 1960s, where they raised 10 children, but only recently were they hit with the staggering bill, NBC Los Angeles reported.Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) billed the couple more than $9,200 for water used between February 2023 and March 2026.Howell — initially suspected a leak somewhere in the house was behind the hefty bill — so she asked her daughter, Stephanie, to contact LADWP for answers.An LADWP representative eventually told the family that the meter had been broken for those three years and they had not been charged for their water, but that the couple still had to pay for what they had used.“You’re going to have to pay the bill,” the representative said, according to Howell’s daughter.Howell’s daughter said she was stunned that LADWP expected her elderly parents, who are both retired and living on a fixed income, to pay the massive bill.“You are coming at my parents that have dedicated their lives as family, people, decent community, good parents, and give them back to community, and then you come with them with this bill at the end of their lives,” Stephanie told the outlet.“Elderly people don’t get additional income.They can’t go back to work.

This is it for them.”The couple’s daughter also blasted LADWP for not catching the issue sooner.Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

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Never miss a story.“They should have read the meter, and they should have had whoever the technician to come out on a monthly basis or whatever to see if the meter is being ...