Bedfordview residents outraged by excessive bills
Many residents have voiced their frustrations with the City of Ekurhuleni over high water and levies billing.
Bedfordview residents have expressed their dismay over the high rates on municipal bills they have been receiving and are demanding a resolution.
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Many residents have voiced their frustrations with the City of Ekurhuleni over high water and levies billing.
A resident revealed their bill was inexplicably hiked from R28 000 to R48 000, leaving them with no choice but to pay it for fear of being disconnected.
Others claimed they are overcharged – triple to four times what they should be paying.
Another resident stated they are submitting their monthly meter readings on the CoE’s app, but the readings are not reflecting on their account.
Other complaints include accounts still not being adjusted after an appeal hearing; immediate disconnections if bills are not paid timeously and then charging reconnection fees; residents having to do their own meter readings and flag accounts not being attended to.
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Jill Humphreys, councillor of Ward 20, has confirmed to Bedfordview and Edenvale they have been attempting to correct erroneous water billings.
The councillor stated she has requested that a billing, meter reading and valuation open day to be hosted at Bedfordview City Hall but is yet to receive feedback from the metro.
“This was done last year with great success when the issues of the valuation needed to be addressed.
“We have residents doing their utmost to comply and not having interims reversed,” said Humphreys.
In the meantime, the CoE could not provide reasons for residents’ accounts continuously being incorrectly charged but rather advised residents to use its WhatsApp number 060 667 7177 as well as the My CoE app for customer convenience.
“Especially those customers who do not prefer to have meter readers in their properties where the meter is inside the properties,” Humphreys said.
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“We still have meter readers that are reading the meters monthly,” said CoE spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini.
He added they try as much as they can to respond within the time frame queries.
“The service standard of the CoE for queries is 90 days.
However, some queries that do not need investigations are responded to in a minimum of three days, provided the queries were correctly directed from the onset,” said Dlamini.
