Vacant house = NO water! (kinda gross)

[Ironclad Alibi]

Could have already been used.

And water has been known to evaporate over time. With the water cut off, it would not have refilled the bowl.

[sylvier]

Basically, it's my job to do weekly checks on the house my parents are trying to sell. They're on the other side of the country, but haven't sold the house yet, so for insurance purposes I check the house, and I maintain the yard to make it look pretty and sellable.

As it's a vacant property, does the current policy cover theft and vandalism and such? Besides keeping the water running, you might want to have a chat with the insurance agent.

[bhskittykatt]

Maybe the sellers were trying to avoid having any bills at all to pay...? Tho I suspect that power was still on. At least here, water usage is actually only a small part of the "water bill", as it also includes taxes, garbage pickup, park maintenance fees, etc...

This exactly. Any unoccupied house around here will have the water off for this reason. We do not have metered water here; it is all a flat rate. So if the water is hooked up, you would be paying the same for water as if the house were occupied. (In like five years or something everyone is supposed to switch to meters, but until then we're stuck with flat-rate water.)

There's still electricity at this house, but all other utilities are off. (Don't know if you still have to pay community association fees if the house is vacant...that would really suck.)

If it was metered, then more vacant houses would probably leave the water on, but we're not metered, so the water typically goes bye-bye when the residents do.

[Mikkel]

If it was metered, then more vacant houses would probably leave the water on, but we're not metered, so the water typically goes bye-bye when the residents do.

That's a good explanation. Thanks.
Here everybody is metered. You pay for both the water and for the handling of used water, but both go by the meter.

[ThirdGenRetail]

As the place I'm in now is the last place we've looked at(And it'll be 9 years this summer), I was just a wee Freshman in High School, so didn't know any of this. Next time we move, I shall keep this information in mind if the water's off at a prospective place

Also, I think the biggest suck for the person who did a number in the toilet is the apparent fact they didn't ASK. By all rights, the house is still somebody else's house, it's just not occupied by them yet. So you should STILL ask to use the bathroom, and since it's been VACANT... If you even CAN use the toilet!

[underemployeed]

I support the, if you have to go, you have to go argument. It also wouldn't kill the Realtor to bring a 5 gallon jug just incase. In certain situations, I would much rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission course if for some emergency i would go find you some water.

[EricKei]

Here, the water is metered, they just only CHECK the meter every 4-6 months. Other months, they just make a guesstimate; when they do the actual read, that month's bill will be adjusted to suit.

[flybye023]

One of my brother's friends was in a plumbing store when he was about 5 or so, and they caught him on one of the toilets in a display window.

[bsaana]

My town just switched to radio enabled meters. They now just drive down about every other street and read all the meters monthly. About 1200-1400 people live in this small town.