A 90-year-old widow living alone had her utility bills withheld for almost a year before being hit with a €2,963 bill based on astronomical water readings she says she couldn’t possibly have consumed.

Rose Cutajar told Times of Malta she has been left desperate by a year-long dispute with ARMS Ltd over a bill she received in September last year that charged her 15 times the amount of water she normally used.

Cutajar was consuming an average of 58c worth of water a day between August 2016 and August 2018 while, from October 2019 to August 2020, she was supposedly consuming an average of €8.85 worth of water daily.

“It’s been very stressful. I always pay my bills as soon as I get them. I keep on telling them I cannot have used that much water but they won’t listen. I never received such a high bill before,” she said.

Cutajar, who used to get bills every couple of months, failed to receive regular bills for the cycle covering October 16, 2019 to  August 21, 2020 and only got one on September 15, 2020 showing she owed €2,963 for the period.

Her son-in-law, John Farrugia immediately wrote to ARMS contesting the consumption and querying why they had held back the bills, which would have alerted them something was wrong immediately.

He called out a professional plumber who, together with a Water Services Corporation representative, determined that leaks weren’t the cause of the high consumption readings.

The plumber also confirmed that the usage seemed off, writing “in my professional view, the usage of 114 units by one person living on her own in an apartment during a 63-day period is way excessive. I highly recommend ARMS Ltd investigate the matter at the earliest.”

Cutajar's shock bill, including interest. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

However, in correspondence seen by Times of Malta, an ARMS representative said that, since determining there were no leaks, the advisory board had decided they couldn’t “grant any rebates”.

Another representative added they didn’t send out the bills as usual since high consumption had been flagged.

“Bills were issued a bit late because, when there is a high consumption of water, the system locks the bills from invoicing in order to verify if bills are correct before issuing,” the email read.

“This was discussed by water services and there could be two facts causing this, an internal leak or else water theft,” the representative continued.

Readings suddenly return to normal 

However, Farrugia explained that if ARMS, with their technology, could see that a single woman living alone was suddenly consuming way beyond the ordinary amount of water, “they should have done something about it”.

He pointed out that, right after objecting to the bill, consumption readings went back to normal, with Cutajar being charged an average of 50c for the next five bills.

This made it too much of a coincidence for water theft to be the reason behind the high consumption readings, he said.

After failing to resolve the dispute with ARMS for almost over a year, Farrugia later filed a complaint with the Regulator for Energy and Water Services, which is currently investigating the case.

Interest piling up

However, ARMS have started to charge interest on the unpaid bills and he said the family is beginning to feel helpless.

“You feel like you’re a tiny individual up against a giant that is crushing you,” he said. “The next step is they will suspend her service,” he said.

“ARMS are acting like a bully that has a monopoly on the service so has no regard for the consumer,” he said.

Cutajar’s daughter, Marisa Farrugia, said she and her husband tried to keep her mother from worrying about the issue by dealing with it themselves.

“My mother had a bypass and, as soon as she gets agitated, her blood pressure goes up, so we have tried to handle this ourselves,” she said.

In response to questions about the case, ARMS COO Nikita Alamango Zammit said that “after an internal investigation by WSC engineers, it has been decided that the case will be reviewed by the advisory board on grounds of a leak”.

“The client will be informed of the outcome accordingly,” she wrote.

However, correspondence seen by Times of Malta indicates the advisory board had already decided on the case in June this year, with an ARMS representative writing to Cutajar:

“Kindly note that advisory board had discussed your case and the fact that the plumber reported no leaks and no leaks were found by internal detection made by WSC back in November 2020, the board agreed that no rebates can be granted on this case.”