Outrageously High Public Utility Bills

by Charles McGuigan 02.2026

After receiving more than twenty calls from Richmond residents about extremely high utility bills, NORTH of the JAMES asked this question on social media platforms: “Has any Richmond resident noticed exorbitant utility bills lately?”

The response was overwhelming. 

For a long period of time one resident was being charged more than $800 a month, an increase of more than 100 percent. The city finally acknowledged its mistake, but instead of refunding the money they simply gave her a $3,600 credit. “And I desperately needed the money,” she says. 

A local restaurant owner has been plagued by massive utility bills. “For the last five months I've been getting bills thousands of dollars more than the norm,” the restaurateur says. When one bill came that was four times more than what she would ordinarily pay, this restaurant owner went to City Hall. “DPU was closed every time I went,” she adds. “There has been zero feedback from the city.”

Below is a small sampling of complaints from other DPU customers:

—“I saw your post on next-door and screamed hallelujah. Glad to know it’s not just my house struggling with them. In the month of December, my water bill went from 7 cc F to 35 cc F. I had plumbers and landlords come over to the house to check for leaks and they said there was no issues with the house so clearly it’s Department of Public Utilities messing something up on their end!!!”

—“I have been fighting DPU water bills for three months. I’ve attached the bills, they have been ‘sending someone out’ for two months. Nothing has changed at my address, I have had no leaks, I am very knowledgeable with residential and industrial plumbing and have checked my own property. The massive bill month, I had a note that they ‘couldn’t read my meter and I needed to make sure it was accessible.’ It is in the alley on city property and unobstructed by me.”

— “I live alone in my home and mine jumped from 4 ccs to 19 ccs for the last two months.”

— “My water bill last month was $269. I live alone. Something clearly is wrong. I run my dishwasher once a week and wash clothes once a month. I do not use that much water.” 

— “I have been arguing over an outrageous $2000 water bill for three months.”

— “My water/sewer was $1250 out of nowhere!” 

And there are scores of others, and they keep coming.

This is the response NORTH of the JAMES received from DPU:

“The Department of Public Utilities has made significant improvements in billing accuracy over the past year through many targeted process and operational improvements, including water meter replacements (nearly 27,000 replaced to date), enhanced meter reading technology, and improved internal processes for billing. For example, there were 131,106 estimated reads in the 2023 fiscal year audit, the first half of fiscal year 2026 has 47,017, an overall reduction of 28.3%. Strategic staffing adjustments have also been made which has led to improved response times. For example, DPU was able to close 94.9% of all open tickets in 2024 and 96.9% in 2025, the goal for 2026 is to achieve a 100%.

“We encourage customers with billing concerns that have not been resolved within the committed timeframes or have gone beyond 60 days to contact our Call Center at 804-646-4646 and request to speak with a supervisor, or escalate it to the DPU Director’s office at dpudirector@rva.gov.

“DPU is committed to continuing to improve these operations through these initiatives and future initiatives that are focused on enhancing accuracy and the customer experience. DPU will also be providing a performance report to our customers, further improving transparency and accountability to ensure these process improvements continue to meet the expectations of our customers.”

Third District Councilwoman Kenya Gibson wrote the following: “Our office has received many complaints and requests regarding DPU since I took office. City Administration asks us to first ensure that residents have submitted their concerns through DPU’s customer service who can be reached at (804) 646-4646 or  dpucustserv@rva.gov. If you haven’t heard back from DPU within two weeks, contact our office so we can flag issues that haven’t been resolved.  We recently helped a resident who had a leak in their water meter get a replacement.

“Because of the volume of issues last summer, we asked DPU director Scott Morris to join us at a district meeting to take constituent questions. His customer service team set up a table to provide support on individual billing concerns. We’re planning to do this again at a district meeting in the near future.

“To contact our office, please send an email to Kenya.gibson@rva.gov” You can also reach the councilwoman at  (804) 646-6055.”  

It might also be a good idea to contact Mayor Danny Avula. He can be reached at (804) 646-7970, or you can email him at RVAMayor@rva.gov 

If you have received DPU bills that seem excessively high and the city has not resolved the matter, feel free to contact NORTH of the JAMES. Send your emails to charlesmcguigan@gmail.com In the subject line, please type “DPU discrepancy.”