We have lived here for the last 10 years. We always pay our water bill. Occasionally, we’ll forget and receive a final notice for our water bill which we will promptly pay.
Tonight at 8 pm, a city police officer banged on our door with a blinding flashlight in hand. Made me verify my identification and then handed me my water bill (the due date being a week from now)
What the hell!
I don’t live in the US, where I live specifically we have water at a flat rate like you but in other areas of the country there are water meters and people get water bills.
There is talk that we may have water meters in my city soon. I’m actually looking forward to it. People think it’s a new bill they didn’t have before but really it’s a different way of paying the same bill. The bonus is that if you cut your water usage (or were already a low user) you can reduce your bill and pay less than you did before.
The other reason it’s a good thing is that it’s estimated a huge proportion of our water is lost to underground leaks on private property. Without water meters they have no way to track down what property has the leak, so property owners aren’t even aware they are there.