Meter readind error by Municipality

Good day,I got a problem with my water bill. I just bought a house last year my house was registered in august. I than send mey wife to go check our waterbill for the first month. She went to municipaliy check the water bill only to find out we have arrears for R10 000. She than told them it imposible because we just moved in,they than check it was a meter reading error by them... They than logged a query and gibe a date for the next month,when i went to check they gave me another date again. Im very unhappy because it took them a day to make the mistake but it take them months to solve it. And at the end i have to pay monthly for arrears that was caused by them. Which is unacceptable. Me and my wife are working both 6days a week so its imposible that our water bill can be R700 a month for a RDP house.