When Pleasant Grove officials discovered that the city had been underbilling a homeowners association for years, they sent a bill to make up for it -- $168,000.

Now residents of the development, and others in similar situations, are asking the City Council for help.

According to Duane Day, president of the Homeowners Association of the Pemberley Development, the city incorrectly billed the association's property management company for more than four years. When the city realized the error, the association's bill was adjusted to make up for the four years. The management company, Advantage Management, pays the bills with association dues.

"The amount is well over $1,000 per homeowner in our neighborhood," Day said. "Most of us have not even lived there for four years."

Day told the City Council that he hoped the city would waive the entire bill. "To ask us to pay for water usage that people used in the past is unfair."

But the city is not to blame for the billing errors, said Scott Wells, utilities billing specialist. According to Wells, the building contractors of the Pemberley and those of two other developments with similar problems failed to let the city know that they had hooked up the water.

The amount of growth in the city also may have been a factor. "Pleasant Grove has exploded with growth in the last couple of years," Wells said. "Some may have slipped through the cracks."

According to Day, the association became concerned when it realized that the bills it was receiving from the city were low.

"Our water bill averaged $9 to $10 per home per month," he said. That is when the association sent two letters, one of them certified, to the city to alert it to the situation in 2006. However, the city has no record of receiving the letters, according to Wells.

The billing problems are not just affecting residents of Pemberley. According to Day, Gateway Village and the Gables developments are dealing with similar billing errors.

"We received a bill of $73,991.60 on the 27th of December," said Amy Cardon, vice president of the Gateway Village HOA. "We were under the impression that everything was being billed," she said. However, for 38 months, the development was only being partially billed by the city.

"We are working with the city to try to resolve it," said Cardon, noting that members of the HOA plan to meet with city officials.

Pleasant Grove Mayor Michael W. Daniels said the city would try to find an amicable solution to the problem.

"The city will try to work with them and give them a period of time to pay," Wells said. However, Wells does not believe it would be fair to other residents of Pleasant Grove to waive the entire amounts for the developments.

According to Lynn Walker, public works director, these problems will not happen again in the city. "It's well covered now. People will have to let us know before they can use water."