Chicago woman billed $233,000 for water she never used in vacant home with no plumbing
A senior citizen's vacant home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood racked up a staggering $233,000 water bill, despite not having any plumbing for years.
Watch CBS News
A senior citizen's vacant home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood racked up a staggering $233,000 water bill, despite not having any plumbing for years.
Eligible homeowners and business owners would be able to have their water bills lowered if they can prove their higher bill is the result of leak in the underground service line.
David Steele got the $5,000 refund he'd been wanting for months, but didn't get an explanation why the city suddenly changed its mind.
Glenn Jones can't sell the vacant house until he figures out the water bill issue with the city.
Through our "Getting Hosed" series on bad water bills, we have found that often communication issues between different city systems have often been the source of the headaches.
Even after David Steele won the first round in his dispute over his bogus water bill, the city figured out a way to hose him again.
The Chicago City Council Finance Committee held a hearing Tuesday with the heads of the Water Management and Finance departments.
A week-by-week log of meter readings showed zero water usage on some entries. Other times, the report came back at 6 million gallons used in a week.
The family knew they had unpaid water charges to settle before selling their three-flat in Roseland, but nothing like the amount they got.
The circumstances vary from case to case, of course, but in short, the pattern involves Chicagoans getting socked with bills for water they didn't use.
"You've got people walking around on fixed income and they can't afford to pay a $500 bill," Burns said. "I would like to see mistakes corrected and I would like to see communication. There's no communication!"
"It's just nuts to me that we have this issue that continues to be reported, on and the city departments are not doing anything about it," Villegas said.
Numerous people whose stories we've reported over the past four years have been getting hosed by bogus bills - often rising into the tens of thousands of dollars.
This did not happen until the CBS 2 Investigators got involved.
Connie Abels has been waiting five years for her hearing.
The homeowner was just being an honest guy and alerted the Chicago Department of Water Management to his unusually low bill.
"The issue with being a city employee is we are obligated to pay any city obligation," said paramedic Lisa Beard.
In Chicago when you die, ComEd shuts off your electricity, and Peoples Gas shuts off your gas. But the city does not stop your water.
Illinois' lead pipe situation is the worst in the country.
Yasser Almanaseer said he has had no luck in getting it fixed.
How does a City of Chicago water bill for $70 turn into a $10,000 tab from one bill to the next?
Getting Hosed, our exposé on Chicago's bad water billing, has saved consumers hundreds of thousands of dollars. So we wanted to know - what happens if you take on the City yourself?
"They told me to hire a good lawyer, that this is probably a billing issue with the city."
Aldermen voted against Ald. Daniel La Spata's proposal for helping low-income residents with water bills, while a competing proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot remains bottled up in a separate committee.
Hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans with unmetered accounts pay inflated bills – and you can't get a meter for a fair bill until you get a non-lead service line.
A man was shot and killed early Wednesday during a carjacking in Chicago's Northalsted district.
A freight train derailment in Chicago Ridge is impacting Metra SWS service on Wednesday morning.
The city recently made its pitch video to the Bears, calling it "Hallas Harbor."
Frances Dahlke, 88, wanted to make sure her grandson Alex was the one to show her above the clouds for the first time.
The three videos show what happened before and after the shooting by a Border Patrol agent on Oct. 4, 2025, in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood.
A 14-year-old girl said she was "crying" and "struggling to breathe" when law enforcement officers herded her onto a racetrack with other detainees and zip-tied her hands.
DuPage County opened up its polls for early voting in the 2026 primary on Tuesday after a snag.
Chicago aldermen this week will consider $29.2 million in settlements in wrongful convictions linked to disgraced former CPD Det. Reynaldo Guevara.
Two Illinois state legislators want to make sure school districts get the funding they need.
The official DHS statistics, which had not been previously reported, provide the most detailed look yet into who ICE has arrested during the Trump administration's crackdown.
This week marks Identity Theft Awareness Week, and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza emphasized some safety tips Monday for avoiding and dealing with identity theft.
A controversial data center in Naperville, Illinois, could be the cause to pack a city council meeting there on Tuesday night.
Police in the west Chicago suburb of Geneva are warning of a scam involving spoofed phone numbers.
Protesters on Tuesday were cranking up the heat on Peoples Gas over a recently proposed rate hike that would add an additional $10 to $11 a month to utility bills.
A lawsuit filed late last month took Chicago-based McDonald's to task over the McRib sandwich, calling its name a form of false advertising.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital announced this week that it is planning to open a new pediatric hospital in the west Chicago suburb of Downers Grove.
It has been nearly six years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the many questions doctors are still working to answer concerns the long-term effects.
Leaders from Cook County, the Illinois Department of Human Services, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository denounced changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Wednesday.
The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a grant from The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation for a new cancer center.
Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital said Tuesday that it is no longer initiating gender-affirming medical treatment for minors.
A Near West Side diner known for drawing in Blackhawks fans and players is up for sale.
January may be the coldest time of the year, but Chicago is already looking forward to summer farmers' markets.
A development proposal issued this month calls for the replacement of a building housing a Giordiano's pizzeria in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood with a new mixed-use building with 28 residential units.
United Airlines flight attendants picketed outside Chicago's Willis Tower Thursday morning as they fought for a new contract.
WSCR-AM, 670 The Score, will begin a simulcast on 104.3 FM next month.
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny took the stage on Sunday dressed in all white, donning a jersey with his last name, Ocasio, and the number 64.
Brad Arnold, the founder and lead singer of the 3 Doors Down has died following "his courageous battle with cancer," the rock band announced Saturday on social media.
Bad Bunny took the stage at halftime for the 2026 Super Bowl. Here's who else performed at Super Bowl 60.
Gamers across the world can now recreate drone strikes in Ukraine from the comfort of their own home, with this newly released game.
The members of Ratboys were teenagers when they met by chance, and now in their 30s, the Chicago band formed by two college friends almost two decades ago appears to be on the brink of something big.
A freight train derailment near Chicago Ridge is impacting Metra SWS service on Wednesday morning.
At least nine people were killed and dozens more injured in shootings at a high school and residence in the northeast part of the province of British Columbia, Canadian police said Tuesday.
Meteorologist Laura Bannon is tracking mild conditions.
The search for Nancy Guthrie continues after a person of interest was detained and then released.
While the team's season is over, the renewed push for a new stadium is in playoff mode, with more cities throwing their hats and money at the team to come to their community.
A freight train derailment in Chicago Ridge is impacting Metra SWS service on Wednesday morning.
The three videos show what happened before and after the shooting by a Border Patrol agent on Oct. 4, 2025, in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood.
The city recently made its pitch video to the Bears, calling it "Hallas Harbor."
CBS News Chicago is tracking what led to the death of an 8-year-old boy in Round Lake Beach and whether state officials were aware of any red flags before his murder.
A man was shot and killed early Wednesday during a carjacking in Chicago's Northalsted district.
CBS News Chicago is tracking what led to the death of an 8-year-old boy in Round Lake Beach and whether state officials were aware of any red flags before his murder.
This is due in part to the new "Big Beautiful Bill" and job cuts at the Internal Revenue Service.
Fewer Chicago kids are getting the dental care they need, and some dentists are blaming Chicago Public Schools.
Cynthia Eason recounted the moment Chicago police officers raided her family's home in 2018.
Water bills could be going up in several Chicago suburbs and other parts of Illinois, as Illinois American Water seeks a rate increase to fund infrastructure improvements.
The city recently made its pitch video to the Bears, calling it "Hallas Harbor."
The White Sox and Cubs are opening up camp in the desert, with both teams feeling good about more than the warmer weather.
Indiana plans to build a bronze statue of longtime basketball coach Bob Knight inside Assembly Hall, where he led the Hoosiers to national championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987.
Keith Brookshire details his friendship with Seattle Seahawks wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson and the generosity he continues to provide to Chicago student athletes.
Anfernee Simons scored 23 points for Chicago, which lost its fifth straight.
A man was shot and killed early Wednesday during a carjacking in Chicago's Northalsted district.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted videos of a person outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Savannah Guthrie, on the morning of her disappearance.
Kouri Richins allegedly poisoned her husband Eric by putting a fatal dose of fentanyl in his drink, leading to his sudden death in 2022.
A woman stood charged Tuesday with slashing a woman in a fight in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood this past weekend.
A man has been charged and extradited from Iowa in a 2024 shooting that left another man dead in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.
