A dispute over rates is a dispute over memory.

When a municipality estimates water usage for months because meters go unread, a large catch up bill usually becomes an argument about the past, and the past belongs to whoever wrote it down.

It tends to go the same way. An actual reading finally comes in after a run of estimates, and the whole difference lands on one statement. The household is sure it never used that much water. But certainty is not evidence, and memory set against the municipality's system loses nearly every time.

A photograph of the meter at the start of each month changes the conversation. The photos carry dates, show steady use and show exactly when the bills stopped matching the dial. A written query with those photos and copies of past statements attached, a reference number kept, and every follow up made in writing turns the dispute into a record against a record.

Levy disputes in a body corporate work the same way, and so do arguments over deposit deductions between landlords and tenants. Whoever kept the paper gets to decide what happened.