Hey guys,

I don't come here often *OG meme pun intended*, but I've had some issues with my apartment complex and I wanted to get some ideas on how you maybe have had some issues with your landlords before and how you got them resolved to your liking.

I moved into my apartment in July 2020. We have had 6 maintenance requests for our toilet constantly running and not shutting off. They kept "fixing" it by adjusting the chain, and replacing seals. After the 6th request, they finally agreed to replace it. I get my water bill for the month of Dec to show I've used 1200 cu ft of water, which is almost 10,000 gallons of water. I definitely did NOT use 10k gallons considering I work 12 hours a day and only come home to eat, sleep, and then leave for work again.

I went to my leasing office and confronted them about the issue, and they directed me to the utility company. They told me: Your water, our meter, their toilet. Our meters are operating properly, (which show to be correct based on all of the other daily usage reporting) so check back with the leasing office and tell them that it's their toilet that's causing the issue.

So I did. The leasing office manager said "Well, these kinds of things happen. I will call the utility company and have them credit your account the difference between Nov. and Dec. and that should fix the problem."

It got me thinking though. We had that toilet since we've moved in, and it's always had this issue, so what do the other months look like?

This month, our usage is down 50% from the average of all previous months excluding December, with the month being almost over. It has been consistent throughout July-Nov, and finally spiked in Dec. The months besides December were still 2x the community average. So it's only fair that I get reimbursed 50% of all money spent on water for the past 6 months considering it's always been high? The new toilet shows that it was the old one making it 2x the community average. (community meaning the complex).

The maintenance requests for this toilet were once in each month that we've lived here. It's been an issue from the start, but they finally agreed to fix it on the 9th of this month.

I sent an e-mail that said "I have attached the *utility company name* bill as of recent. If you take a look at our usage chart vs community average, not including December's usage, we are using 2x the amount of the community average because of *apartment complex name*'s toilet that had not been repaired successfully until this last maintenance visit. On top of this months' bill adjustment, I am asking for 50% of the total money spent on our water bill for the past 6 months, which is $240.17. This is more than fair considering that we had requested this problem be fixed numerous times to no avail."

They replied: "We spoke with *utility company name* yesterday and had them credit your account the $40 difference between your average water bill and your most recent bill that was higher due to the running toilet. We are not able to take community average into account, we can only compare what your personal average usage has been with the times that your toilet was not running properly, as we did with your most recent bill. Please let me know if you have any other questions about this."

Okay, fine. I understand you can't take community averages into account considering there are vacant apartments with no usage. But, why are you overlooking the fact that since this toilet has been replaced, we are right on par with the community average this month, therefore showing that the old toilet was consistently making the bill 2x higher?

How do you think I should go about making this resolved, because it doesn't seem like they care that they were at fault in costing me money. It's not the dollar amount I'm necessarily concerned about, but they slapped me in the face when they said, 'ok my b, we'll give ya 40 bucks'. Technically, $40 was the difference but considering they're taking the difference of two numbers that were both higher than they should be because of their faulty equipment, that still isn't making it right.

Thanks in advance for the advice.