Half-yearly water rates bills, including one over $6500 have caused some shocked reactions from Whakatāne ratepayers this week.

A post by truck driver Mark Law on the Whakatāne Matters community Facebook page saying a friend had received a $4000 water rates bill resulted in almost 100 comments.

While Law told Local Democracy Reporting that the high rates demand had turned out to be because of a water leak that seeped away and didn’t surface, further comments revealed 11 further people whose latest water rates bill had run to over $500.

Former Whakatāne Beacon reporter Sven Carlsson, who commented about a $6581 water rates bill, said that according to the rates bill for the property where he lived, they had used 2261cu m of water.

This is almost the same quantity as an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Carlsson said this equated to 12cu m a day, or 500 litres an hour.

“Our normal usage is 0.381 cubic metres per day. One suspects there might have been changes to the computer systems that measures and does invoicing.”

Other high amounts mentioned included a 76-year-old woman facing a $2400 bill, and bills of $2800, $1200, $950, $900, $800 and $700.

Law said he had learned from previous professions where he had experience from water metering systems, the best way to check for a water leak on your property was to first turn off all the water in the house.

“Then look at the meter, and if it is still ticking around, you have a water leak and need to call a plumber.”

Whakatāne District Council said it could not comment on individual customer accounts for privacy reasons.

Three waters transition director Nic Johansson said staff were looking into the matters and working with waters, rates and customer services teams to understand the cases.

“Water rates and invoicing can be complex, and there is rarely a single explanation that applies to every property.”

He encouraged customers who believed their water usage was unusually high or low, or who had concerns about a meter reading, to contact customer services.

“We can check and verify meter readings and work through individual circumstances directly with the customer.”

Johansson said one of the most common causes of unexpectedly high water usage was a leak on the property. Customers who have repaired a qualifying leak may be eligible for a water leakage remission.

Information about detecting leaks and applying for a remission is available on the Whakatāne District Council website.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.