Houston – Houston water customers have dealt with a string of billing problems over the last four years — from rate increases to erroneous meter readings. Now, an investigation has uncovered yet another layer to those problems: hundreds of customers were billed for water they never used, because the city installed the wrong meters at their homes.
“I recently had a bill that was $683,” said Brandon Citizen, a Houston water customer.
Another customer described the shock of opening his bill.
“One day I got a bill and I was like, ‘Woah! This is, you know — this is a huge spike,’” said Charles Anyichie.
Wrong meters, wrong bills
Bottom line: During a major push in 2024 to replace approximately 125,000 aging water meters and install remote-reading devices, Houston Public Works accidentally installed the wrong meters at hundreds of homes. The faulty equipment led to inaccurate water bills for multiple years — and most of the more than 600 affected customers had no idea why their bills were so high.
Heather Laureles was among those customers.
“Getting up to $300, $500, $700...” Laureles said. “We have noticed water bills that were unusually high, and sometimes it doesn’t make any sense compared to what water you’re used to using.”
A tipster provided a list of all the addresses where the wrong meters were installed. The source was concerned the city was quietly swapping out the bad equipment without notifying customers — some of whom had been complaining about high bills for years.
“For sure, they should have sent some type of letter or email or something to let us know what’s going on or what’s causing this,” Brandon Citizen said.
A years-long timeline
Brandon Citizen lives on Real Street in the Gulfgate area. Public Works installed the wrong meters at these homes in September 2024.
Emails KPRC received through a public records request show the city discovered the error in January 2026.
Crews replaced the meters in March 2026.
Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi acknowledged the lapse in an April 15th KPRC interview.
“To this day, no one from the city has said, ‘Hey — it was the wrong equipment,’” KPRC’s Amy Davis said.
“Yeah, yeah... that’s a failure on our part in customer service,” Macchi said.
Macchi explained the error originated when a meter manufacturer shipped the wrong equipment in a large order at the end of 2022.
“They actually installed the wrong register on those water meters. The register they had was not compatible. And so that means the meter itself was registering either faster or slower than what actually took place,” Macchi said.
“Regardless, what it means is the wrong equipment was in the ground. Wrong in terms of broken,” he added.
The bad meters were distributed across the city — from Kingwood to downtown Houston, near the airport, and on the southwest side.
One customer’s experience
Charles Anyichie lives alone. His typical water usage runs about 2,000 gallons a month. But two months after the city installed the wrong meter at his home, his meter showed he used 7,000 gallons. Months later, it registered 11,000 gallons. Then, in February, his meter showed 15,000 gallons.
Anyichie eventually stopped paying his bill — and that’s when the water department called.
“It wasn’t calling me to say, ‘Hey, we’ve noticed your bill’s getting high.’ They were calling me to see exactly how was I going to make a payment?” Anyichie said.
When Amy Davis told Anyichie the city had already swapped out his faulty meter — without notifying him — he decided to call water customer service about his $1,900 balance with Amy listening in.
The customer service representative suggested Anyichie check his toilet for a silent leak or fill out an adjustment form. After 14 minutes on the call, Anyichie asked a pointed question.
“Do you know if the city has made any changes to the water equipment recently?” Anyichie asked.
“Umm... no, I’m not sure of that. I wouldn’t be able to answer that,” the water department representative responded.
Anyichie later reflected on the exchange.
“She had no recollection on if they installed something new or not. She couldn’t give me any information on if anything was faulty,” he said.
The situation raised a key question: Should call center agents have been armed with the list of 637 addresses where faulty meters were installed — so they could immediately flag the issue when affected customers called?
Macchi acknowledged the city’s technology is a barrier.
“The city is, from a technology standpoint, really still in the Stone Age when it comes to our customer database. Most of the time, when a customer calls in, the technology doesn’t even allow our agents to have good information in front of them about what this customer’s got going on, down to their billing history, down to the infrastructure in the ground, down to technician requests and service visits,” Macchi said.
Credits, closed accounts, what customers should do now
The city is now calculating how much each of the 637 affected customers may have overpaid by comparing their average usage before the faulty meters were installed against what the broken equipment recorded — and crediting customers the difference.
Anyichie received a credit of $825.05.
Laureles will receive a credit of $623.09.
“That is not insignificant. Wow,” Laureles said.
However, there is a complication. During door-knocking to notify residents of the meter mix-up, Amy Davis noticed many of the 637 homes are now listed for sale.
“So those customers, how would they ever get their money back?” a reporter asked Macchi.
“If a customer closes their account, it’s going to be near impossible to do that. There won’t be anything for us to give a credit back towards because the account’s not open anymore,” Macchi said.
Macchi’s advice: Do not close your water account until you have resolved any potential overpayment with the city.
How to check if the wrong water meter was installed at your home
The KPRC 2 Investigates team made an interactive map featuring all 637 addresses with the wrong equipment.
You can also check addresses on this database.
If your address is on the list and you have not received a notice from the city, contact the water department directly.
Laureles said the situation is frustrating — especially for those who may never know they are owed money.
“I feel disappointed that that could happen to a lot of people who don’t know that they’re owed money by the city, or that their water bills have been inaccurate,” she said.
Macchi said the city is working to do better.
“We’re doing the best we can to make sure that all of our agents have the information necessary to resolve your complaint. But if you feel like you’re not being heard, it’s not getting there — you can always escalate that. My contact information, in fact, is very public and accessible. Customers reach out to me and I’m always happy to make sure that our team takes care of those customers’ problems as quickly as we receive them,” Macchi said.
‘DRAINED’ Houston water department Investigation
Led by KPRC 2 Investigator Amy Davis, our investigation spent years shedding light on overbilling, faulty water meters, and mismanagement of city contracts. These discoveries led to the arrest and charges for seven people and an overhaul of how the entire water billing system works.
SEE MORE: Everything you need to know about the ‘DRAINED’ KPRC Investigation