The Bill the Leak Already Ran Up

What these schemes are

A leak adjustment — some utilities call it leak forgiveness, some a billing adjustment — is a credit against a bill that a hidden leak inflated. The reasoning is that you were charged for water you never used and could not see leaving, and most utilities accept that as a reason to give some of it back once the leak is fixed.

They are not charity and they are not automatic. Every one of them is a conditional offer with a deadline attached, and the conditions differ so much from place to place that no site can tell you yours.

A large one, in its own terms

New York City’s program is unusually well documented, which is why it is quoted here rather than paraphrased. DEP states that a leak must be fixed within 120 days of the original bill, and that the application has to be made inside the same window. The bill itself has to be at least 200 percent of a normal one — 150 percent where meter data is not available.

What comes back is half the high bill, with a floor: the final amount owed will not fall below 150 percent of a typical bill. It cannot be used if forgiveness was granted in the previous two years. Where a leak could not reasonably have been discovered inside the repair period, DEP allows a further 180 days.

Note what is generous and what is not. All leaks qualify, including ordinary fixtures. But a floor of 150 percent means a bad month stays a bad month.

Source: New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Leak Forgiveness Program.

A small one, which works differently

Oregon City runs a scheme with the same purpose and almost none of the same arithmetic. The bill has to be at least twice the average month. A customer may request a credit no more than once every 24 months. Only two months of overage are adjusted, and the adjusted portion is calculated at half the water distribution rate.

The request must be in writing and must name the date the leak was detected and the date it was repaired, with a description of the repairs and a plumber’s bill or receipt to prove them. Irrigation leaks need the Finance Director to sign off.

Source: City of Oregon City, Oregon, Water Leak Policy and Adjustment Application.

Why two examples and not a table of fifty

Because the two above already contradict each other on almost every material term, and there are thousands of utilities in the United States. A table would be out of date the month after it was published and would invite you to act on somebody else’s rules.

What generalizes is the shape: a threshold, a deadline, a proof requirement, a frequency limit, and a formula that gives back some of the excess rather than all of it. The deadline is the part that costs people money, because it is usually counted from a bill you have already received.

What to do about yours today

Search for your water utility’s name with the words leak adjustment, or telephone them and ask whether they operate one. Ask four things: what the deadline is and what it runs from, what evidence they want, how much of the excess comes back, and whether you have used the scheme inside their lookback period.

Then get the leak found and repaired, and keep the paperwork. The evidence these schemes want is the same evidence in almost every case.

• The deadline
• Proving it