Richmond restaurant hit with erroneous $60K water bill
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A Richmond restaurant owner says the city mistakenly pulled roughly $60,000 from her bank account this week for a utility bill that typically would've been around $1,500.
Why it matters: The erroneous charge left Harry's at Hofheimer owner Natalie McNamara scrambling to get her money back and raised fresh questions about the city's billing system amid ongoing problems.
State of play: McNamara, who owns and operates the multi-use restaurant, event space and rooftop in Scott's Addition, received a $58,486.76 water bill last week, according to records reviewed by Axios.
- Her typical monthly water bill for the 2816 W. Broad St. space is roughly $1,500.
- Most of the increase appeared to be connected to the building's fireline meter, which serves the fire sprinkler system. The bill showed usage jumping from zero to 9,989.83 CCF for July — and a line item cost of over $55,000.
- McNamara says DPU officials told her Wednesday that the spike stemmed from a meter-reading issue that the department should have caught.
The other side: A city spokesperson said in a statement that DPU doesn't comment on "specific customer billing concerns."
- They also pointed Axios to its DPU billing updates page for any other DPU issues.
Context: Richmond DPU reported multiple issues with a new utility billing system it launched in late May. DPU said last week the issues were resolved.
- It's unclear whether McNamara's issues were related.
Between the lines: The error created an immediate cash-flow headache for McNamara.
- She says she spent a week trying to reach DPU by phone before calling the emergency water leak line to get a person to speak to her. She says she was told her name wasn't associated with the account.
- McNamara says DPU representatives who promised to follow up with her didn't.
- Trying to reconstruct her billing history also required navigating the city's two billing systems, she says.
- She finally got the disputed charge removed this week after contacting her City Council rep, who connected her with the DPU director.
What they're saying: “I worked at a law firm for six years, so I know how to advocate for myself. … most people don’t," McNamara tells Axios.
- She says she decided to share her story to warn Richmonders to closely check their water bills.