All 70-year-old Farooq Chishti wants to do is pay his own water bill.

Just his own, not his neighbours’.

Not, as he’s been forced to do for 17 years, receive a water bill in the mail, try to figure out who owes what from his neighbours, then try to collect from people who sometimes debate the bill, or threaten him or simply move without paying.

But months and months of trying to get help from the city has left him frustrated.

“It is affecting my health,” he said, his voice trembling. “It is at the point I can go no further.”

City hall representatives say their hands are somewhat tied by a 40-year-old private agreement among property owners, a kind that would likely never be allowed today.

“I think you can say that is a rare situation,” said John Lucas, director of water and waste water.

Chishti said he learned of the rare situation about 17 years ago when he bought two side-by-side units in a townhouse complex at 51 Summit Ave., just off Oxford St. W., west of Wharncliffe Rd.

He learned only one water line and one meter served all six neighbouring units. That meant it was his responsibility to pay the water bill for all six homes.

He’s forced each month to go to each unit and, based on the number of people living there, divide the bill fairly. Several units are rented, with tenants over the years unhappy with his math.

Over the years, rather than cause trouble, he’s paid the outstanding balances, he said.

“What could I do? I had no way out.”

When Chishti lost his job last year, and ended up on a small pension, his son started looking into the bills.

“I had no idea it was so bad,” said his son, Kamran. One resident hasn’t paid his share of the bill for nine months, he said.

The family installed a shutoff valve to force the resident to pay, but that just got a visit from police with the threat of an arrest, Kamran Chishti said.

Three years ago, the family got the two people who own the other four units to sign an application to get individual water lines and meters, which they’ll have to pay for themselves.

That application is still valid, but the owners must get building permits to move ahead, Lucas said.

Kamran Chishti said he recently took the forms to the city building department and was told the forms are no longer valid. Frustrated, he and his father turned to a lawyer, who suggested they call the media to expose the bizarre situation.

“No matter what I do, they are going to come up with more excuses. Runaround, runaround,” Kamran Chishti said.

He provided the name of one city hall building department employee he’d been dealing with. Several attempts to reach that employee by The Free Press Monday and Tuesday succeeded Tuesday, but the employee said he was no longer on the file and referred questions to another employee. That employee did not return a phone call.

“It is a nightmare,” Kamran Chishti said. “No one at the city wants to take responsibility. They are forcing a 70-year-old man to beg for water money. They have no shame.”

randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca