A Riverside car wash has gotten over $100,000 of free water because of a billing error with the city’s water meter.

The City of Riverside wasn’t aware it was incorrectly billing the Auto Spa for only one-tenth of its water consumption for 11 years until Auto Spa owner Bill Steig received a bill of $5,265.80 at the end of September. His bill for the month prior was $84.86. Utility Billing Clerk Becky LaRoche says Steig was being charged one-tenth since he purchased the property in 2006 because there was a decimal point off in the system when the meter was installed in 2005, and it was incorrectly categorized as a residential property instead of commercial. A new water meter was installed last spring, and has taken a few months for its commercial accounts to interface. The September bill of $5,265.80 was an error, and was corrected to $1,497.38.

Steig commented on how the correct billing will affect his business, “What my bill would be, how they’re computing it now and this represents between a 700-900% increase each month. That makes the car wash unviable. It will not exist with that level of cost.”

Steig says he’s raised car wash prices to account for increased expenses and has been met with a lot of resistance from customers. The city can only legally reclaim unpaid water expenses for the last 2 years, which amounts to $26,647.12. When asked how he wanted to move forward with a payment plan, Steig said he wants to consult with his lawyer. The city has reviewed all other commercial accounts for billing errors.