URS Recoups Wood Partners’ Alta Rolling Oaks over $100K in Misbilling from San Antonio Water
Utility Revenue Services (URS), a national leader in seamless utility management for developers, real estate owners and management companies has recouped Wood Partners more than $100K from San Antonio Water (SAW) for misbilling and overpayments. URS determined water usage at the Alta Rolling Oaks property has been incorrectly calculated and invoiced resulting in a necessary 12- month billing adjustment. This marks the second major misbilling issue URS has discovered and addressed for Wood Partners in less than six months; totaling more than $600K in refunds, adjustments, and/or savings for the multifamily developer.
For months, Wood Partners was grappling with invoices for water services that were way too high with exorbitant consumption rates at Alta Rolling Oaks in North San Antonio. When pressed for answers, SAW claimed a construction related leak was causing the high consumption. When no leaks were detected, the communication between the parties ceased.
According to Jill Keene, Senior Director of Development Services for URS, when communication between the property and the utility stopped, Wood Partners asked URS to help mitigate the problem as they have done for many of their other properties. Once URS jump-started the communication between the two parties, the property received a field visit from SAW, and it was determined all the invoices were inconsistently billing CCFs versus gallons. SAW finally agreed to do an account review and after several weeks, the appropriate financial adjustments were made to the account.
“When no one else could, we got to the root cause of the issue with San Antonio Water in just a matter of weeks,” said Keene. “Our persistence certainly paid off. Wood Partners is a valued client and we are pleased to be a trusted partner to problem solve and save them money at Alta Rolling Oaks and other properties across the country.”
Prior to this adjustment in San Antonio, URS was tasked with solving similar billing/usage issues at Wood Partners’ Alta Longwood Property in the City of Longwood, FL. Upon detailed review of consumption and invoices for several years, URS determined the meters had been incorrectly read by the water department resulting in a refund of more than $436K.