The Curious History Of Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartment's Water Allocation Billing

When the majority of the residents who live in Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments took up residence, water was included in the rent.

And then a few years ago residents were informed they would be receiving a water bill, but not a bill based on their own metered consumption, but instead a bill based on some formula factoring all residents together.

Residents were told that this new billing was an effort to conserve water by motivating residents to monitor their water use, and thus help keep rents from rising.

Trouble is, well, the Havenwood property had not raised rents in a long long time. Not in any current resident's memory. Til after the water bills arrived. Along with a new property owner, Capital Vision Management and its owner, Mahesh P. Desai.

So, the save water to save money argument seemed just a bit specious. No one remembers the name of the first Havenwood water billing company. The amount billed matched that which the leases indicated residents would be charged, as evidenced by the below item from a lease from that initial water allocation billing period.

Initially, with the first water allocation billing company, the bill was never higher than what you see indicated above. And then, without warning, without tenant consent, without an explanation of a change to the billing formula, the billing company was switched to a company called NES.

National Exemption Service.

Immediately, with no explanation, the first bill from NES took a BIG jump, for a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment, going from the $20 range to the $32 range. With each subsequent bill the amount increased, again, with no explanation, in violation of TCEQ rules.

At one point notice was given that the NES billing would be covering a longer billing period, in order to catch the billing period up to being more concurrent with the rent due date.

Huh?

So, how did it happen that residents had been water back billed months prior to their rent due date? It was not the resident's choice as to when to begin water billing. And such billing could only begin with the inception of a new lease. The high point for an NES bill during their catch up period, for a two bedroom, two bath apartment was over $50.

Do the words "fraud" and "racketeering" mean anything to anyone?

At the top you see the final bill for a two bedroom two bath apartment from NES before, with no notice, and mid-lease, in clear violation of TCEQ rules, once again the water allocation billing company was switched. This time to an entity called Comptrol Technologies.

More on Comptrol Technologies' reputation in a subsequent article.

As you can see below, the first bill from Comptrol Technologies took an over $10 jump from the previous NES bill. Again, with no explanation, again, mid-lease, again, without tenant consent and again, in violation of TCEQ rules.

And now, in the latest iteration of a Havenwood Lease, in the section pertaining to water billing, we see a drastic change to the information regarding the average amounts billed...

Clearly, Fort Worth has not doubled the amount it charges for water. It is highly unlikely Havenwood residents have doubled their water usage. Particularly when they are supposedly being motivated to save water in order to save money.

So, what is the explanation for the BIG increase in the dollar amount being billed?

TCEQ, as in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, requires an explanation.

We are in the process of trying to obtain that required explanation. In the meantime, the aforementioned "fraud" and "racketeering" explanation would seem to be the most logical explanation to explain the inexplicable....