Man buys Milwaukee house; water bill for $19,000 a 'shock'
Man buys Milwaukee house, water bill for $19,000 a 'shock'
An unexpected water bill is costing a Milwaukee house-flipper thousands of dollars. He didn't even own the property when the water was used.
MILWAUKEE - An unexpected water bill is costing a Milwaukee house-flipper thousands of dollars. He didn't even own the property when the water was used.
Unexpected bill
The backstory:
In August 2024, Mark Tolliver bought a house on Richards Street in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood with plans to renovate and resell.
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"I liked about the house that it was a corner house, single family," he said.
Then, in January, Tolliver found himself in uncharted waters when he got a water bill for more than $19,000.
Mark Tolliver's water bill
"It was a shock to me," he said. "I had no floods. No broken pipes."
The bill said Tolliver's property used 5.8 million gallons of water in 585 days, or nearly 10,000 gallons per day. Tolliver said, for most of his home renovation project, the water to the property was turned off.
"If I used five million gallons, that would have drowned the whole block," he said.
What happened?
Local perspective:
The reason for the massive bill lies in the home's basement. Just weeks after Tolliver bought the house, in September 2024, Milwaukee Water Works exchanged the water meter.
Milwaukee Water Works told Contact 6, at that time, "an accurate reading was obtained from the old meter," resulting in Tolliver's bill.
Mark Tolliver
The utility said, in part: "Due to the meter not transmitting a signal and the property being inaccessible, Milwaukee Water Works had not obtained an actual water consumer meter read since 2020."
What the law says
Dig deeper:
Under Wisconsin law, all services provided by a utility must be billed – even if an error resulted in bills that were too low. It's called back-billing.
Utilities can only charge up to two years back, which is why Tolliver's bill was adjusted to $12,000. He still isn't satisfied.
"When I sell the house, this is coming off the top," he said.
Mark Tolliver's water bill
Milwaukee Water Works
What they're saying:
Tolliver said the previous owner was an elderly woman whose daughter sold him the property. He says water to the property was turned off from 2023 to 2025.
Milwaukee Water Works said it's customary for a property owner or title company to request a final bill before a sale.
It states, "that request was not made prior to the sale of this property in August 2024. If it had been, MWW would have required access to the property to obtain a meter reading and issue a final bill before the sale."
Title company reacts
What they're saying:
Tolliver bought the home in a private sale. He said the seller wanted to use Prism Title.
Prism Title told Contact 6 that their company met the terms of the purchase agreement form that Tolliver used to submit his offer.
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"The closing figures were based on the most recent water bill from Milwaukee Water Works, adding necessary prorations," Bob Bingham of Prism Title wrote in an email to Contact 6.
Bingham said nothing from the City of Milwaukee indicated a potential issue with the water bill. He also said the business helped to investigate the bill after being contacted by Tolliver over the summer.
"After a myriad of calls to the water department we were not provided with any information to understand the cause of the billing ... (or) ... any reasonable path that we could communicate for the buyer to contest the water billing with the city," wrote Bingham.
Legal perspective
Dig deeper:
Kali Murray is a professor of law at Marquette University. She said one could argue it's the title company's responsibility, or the buyer's responsibility, to uncover any liens on a property before a purchase.
Murray said this case is an unusual one.
"If the water meter wasn't working, then there was no lien for either the buyer to find, or the title company to find," she said.
Murray said Tolliver could attempt to sue the title company or the seller, but she said it's legally a gray area.
"It's a pretty tricky situation," she said. "You're going to end up paying a lawyer more than the claim is worth."
House Mark Tolliver bought
Title insurance
Dig deeper:
Tolliver's title insurance policy underwriter, First American, won't cover liens filed after a transaction's closing. In a letter to Tolliver, a claims specialist also wrote that First American "is not responsible for the actions or inactions of the settlement agent at closing."
Moving forward
What's next:
Tolliver's house has a buyer, but he said the water bill erases his profits. What might be a drop in the bucket for a large business is a big setback for a small entrepreneur.
"This is coming off the top," he said. "It's a big difference."
Submit a Contact 6 inquiry
Here is how you can submit an inquiry with the Contact 6 team.
Statements
What they're saying:
Full statement from Milwaukee Water Works:
Due to the meter not transmitting a signal and the property being inaccessible, Milwaukee Water Works had not obtained an actual water consumption meter read since June 2020.
It is customary for the property owner, authorized representative, or title company to request a final bill before a sale. According to our customer records, that request was not made prior to the sale of this property in August 2024. If it had been, MWW would have required access to the property to obtain a meter reading and issue a final bill before the sale.
When the meter was exchanged in September 2024, an accurate reading was obtained from the old meter, which resulted in the bill Mr. Tolliver received. MWW has since issued an adjustment for a significant portion of that bill, in accordance with state statute, which only allows the utility to bill for the previous two years of usage.
Mr. Tolliver may file a complaint with the Public Service Commission (PSC) if he believes the utility did not handle the matter appropriately.
Most recent email from Bob Bingham of Prism Title to Contact 6:
The water bill for Mr. Tolliver's purchase was calculated based on the terms of his accepted offer to purchase. The method of calculations for municipality charges is included in the language of the standard WB-11 Residential Offer to Purchase agreement that Mr. Tolliver used to submit his offer (See page 7 Line 359). The closing figures were based on the most recent water bill from Milwaukee Water Works, adding necessary prorations. Utilizing prorations is the typical method for determining water bill figures on most all purchase transactions.
The Source: Information for this report comes from Mark Tolliver, Milwaukee Water Works, Prism Title and Kali Murray. Tolliver provided Contact 6 with copies of his water bills and correspondence with First American.