I know that the City has a system where they will reduce one month's payment if you have a leak. IIRC, they'll do that once in three years. Be careful when you ask for it, though. We had a leak in our main, and asked for the reduction; they reduced the "terrible" month to basically the same as the next month. The problem is, the "next" month included a week or two where the leak was still running...so we didn't get all the discount we might have gotten otherwise. I don't know if there is a way to work with the city to get it better.
As for diagnosis, I have little knowledge. We didn't know that we had a leak until I accidentally stepped in a damp spot. Do you know where your meter is, and can you make an educated guess about where the pipe is? Try drawing a line from your water meter to where it enters the house (usually, there's a hose spigot there, so it's easy to find).
Also, have you tried looking at the water meter when everything is turned off? Does it look like it's still moving then? (I don't know how fast a water meter moves, so I'm not sure if this is a good test or not.) |