Staten Islander billed $5000 for water: he allegedly wasted 3000 liters a day

Red tape left the Staten Islander drowning in more than $5000 in debt. The cause, he insists, is erroneous water bills from the city, which now wants access to the debtor's bank account. New York Daily News.

Borislav Lembersky has been fighting the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for nearly two years now over outrageously high water bills. On November 1, 2019, Lembersky received the city's first mind-blowing bill of $2510,95 for two months for water use in his two-story home. His typical bill for a whole year is about $700.

He called DEP, where he was told that he was using 3000 liters of water a day and suggested that he was leaking. The department sent workers to check on his property.

“They arrived in an emergency truck,” Lembersky recalled. - They said that “something seems to be wrong, but we can’t see anything.” And they left."

On December 27, 2019, another water bill came in, it amounted to $2986,55. As a result, Lembersky's total debt for four months amounted to $5497,50.

“I have never seen such a huge amount on a water bill…twice!” the man said.

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Then the flow of inflated prices stopped

“All of a sudden everything was back to normal, bills were coming in for $120 every two months,” the homeowner said.

Lembersky made payments on these bills, but ignored two huge bills, hoping that this was a mistake that would soon be corrected. But this never happened, despite phone calls, meetings and letters.

“I made three more appointments,” Lembersky said. “I keep calling the department and I say, ‘If you guys can’t find anything, why are you charging me money? Your employees tell me one thing, and you tell me another.”

Lembersky was ordered to write letters to various people at DEP to explain his situation, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

“I have written three letters to department heads and they all keep refusing me,” he said. It's impossible, it's crazy. They keep saying you need to appeal and you get rejected again and again.”

“I keep asking them how is it even possible to waste 3000 liters of water a day? The whole area would be under water,” Lembersky is indignant.

The situation became critical in October when the bank intervened.

“They are threatening to seize my house, I keep getting messages from the bank's mortgage department,” he said. “$5000 is a lot of money for me, I am an ordinary worker.”

Meanwhile, the landlord continued to correspond with DEP, but to no avail. On March 30, Lembersky received an email from the city saying, “You have exhausted all legal administrative remedies.” The letter asked him to appeal to the State Supreme Court, which he plans to do with the help of a lawyer.

“There are no intelligent people there,” Lembersky said. - It terrifies me. You're dealing with people who don't want to listen, they just want to close their eyes and say, "Pay, pay, pay."

The DEP press office did not respond to a request for comment.