Did Your LADWP Bill Really Jump? Check It Against Your Own History

The bill comes in and it is three, five, ten times what you expected. Your first question is simple. Is this really different from last year, or does it just feel that way?

Your bank statements can show whether your payments changed. To check billed charges or usage, match those payments to the LADWP bills. This guide shows how to build that history and what to ask if it looks unusual.

LADWP's Customer Bill of Rights includes this commitment: "Bills that exceed three times the average historic use for the same billing period will automatically be reviewed. If a customer receives a bill that is three times their average historic billing period use due to an inaccurate meter reading, they will receive a $25 bill credit and the bill will be corrected."

Two things to notice:

• It is about use, not dollars. The rule compares how much water or power you used, not what you paid. Prices can go up while use stays the same.
• It compares the same billing period. Your August–September bill is compared to past August–September periods, not to your spring bills.

So the fair test is: this period versus the same period in past years.

Download bank and card statements going back two or three years. Get every account you paid LADWP from.

By hand: search each PDF for "LADWP" or "DWP" and write down the date and amount of each payment.

With LedgerLens: upload the statements (PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QFX or QBO). You don't connect your bank. On the Transactions page, search for LADWP. The search looks at the merchant name and the statement description. You get every LADWP payment with its date and amount. Try "DWP" too, in case your bank shortened the name.

Use the service dates on your LADWP bills; Level Pay customers still receive regular bills every two months. Make a small table with one row per billing period and one column per year:

Use each bill to identify its service dates, billed charges and water or power usage. Add payments as a separate column if useful. Compare usage across matching service periods; a bank payment date alone does not identify the period billed.

LedgerLens doesn't build this table for you. It gives you the payments with their dates, so the payments column takes minutes instead of an evening.

If you joined LADWP's Level Pay, your payments will look flat, and that changes what your bank statement can tell you.

LADWP's Level Pay page explains how it works:

• "We calculate your average utility services usage over the past 12 months."
• "If you have a past due balance, it will be added to the average monthly amount to be paid off over the payment term."
• "If at the end of the term, you paid more or less than the amount of services used, the difference will be rolled into the calculation of the next term."
• "You will continue to receive your regular bi-monthly bill which will continue to include your actual usage."

Level Pay spreads payments into scheduled monthly amounts, which can be adjusted. A scheduled payment does not show that month's actual usage. Compare your bills instead, which still show actual usage. Check your LADWP account records or Level Pay notices to confirm whether you enrolled and when.

Level Pay is listed for residential and multi-residential customers.

If the same period this year is far above past years, call LADWP at 1-800-DIAL-DWP (1-800-342-5397). Have your table and your bill in front of you. Ask whether your bill is being reviewed under the Bill of Rights, and whether the meter reading was actual or estimated.

Your table shows your usage and what you paid. It doesn't prove a bill is wrong, and it doesn't replace the usage numbers on the bill itself. It does make the call shorter and clearer.

Uploading statements and searching your payments is free on the Starter plan. If you want the full list as an Excel file, open Statement list, choose Custom, set Show to Money out, and download it with Plus: $12 a month or $120 a year.