Q&A
Process for disputing water and sewer charges and DEP's leak forgiveness program
1:22:19
·
131 sec
Council Member Sanchez inquires about the process for disputing water and sewer charges. Albert Kramer from DEP explains the dispute process and provides information on DEP's leak forgiveness program.
- Approximately 15,000 disputes are filed each year.
- Disputes include both challenges to charge accuracy and requests for leak forgiveness.
- DEP has a 3-step review process for disputes: initial dispute, deputy commissioner appeal, and final dispute to the water board.
- About half of the disputes are requests for the leak forgiveness program.
- DEP offers flexible payment agreement terms for customers who need them.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:22:19
Okay.
1:22:20
And so an an another for for DP.
1:22:23
It's important that water and sewer charges accurately reflect water usage before they become a lean against the property.
1:22:29
Although DEP allows property owners to dispute water and sewer charges, there is little public information about the results of those disputes.
1:22:36
Can you tell us about the the process by which ratepayers can dispute their water and sewer charges, and approximately how many ratepayers have disputed water and sewer charges with DP in, say, the last year or whatever time frame you can offer.
Albert Kramer
1:22:51
Absolutely.
1:22:52
So let me start with the last question and work backwards customer care.
1:22:55
So roughly 15,000 disputes are filed each year.
1:23:00
I just wanna clarify that we catalog a dispute as both somebody saying, hey, I don't think my charges are correct, and also somebody saying, I know that there was a leak.
1:23:09
We send out a, you know, tens of thousands of leak notifications.
1:23:12
I'd like to apply for DDP's leak forgiveness program.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:23:15
There's a leak okay.
1:23:16
I'll I'll get there.
Gale Brewer
1:23:18
I'll suffer for worse.
Albert Kramer
1:23:19
I'll I'll then water bills.
1:23:20
Happy to talk about But, yes, we, you know, leaks happen.
1:23:24
We get it.
1:23:25
And as long as customers pay you know, fix the leak within a set period of time, you know, trying to find a balance between water conservation, water incentivize customers to conserve.
1:23:34
We also wanna be We understand that that leaks happen and provide a provide a bill relief to that.
1:23:40
So roughly half of disputes as we catalog them are requests for a leak forgiveness program and roughly half are actually disputing the bill We have a 3 step review process.
1:23:51
There's a initial dispute.
1:23:52
Then there's a deputy commissioner appeal, and then there's a final dispute to the to the waterborne.
1:23:58
After that, there's a article 78 proceeding like to any city city government.
1:24:03
Most most disputes don't rise up that that rank.
1:24:06
They're addressed in the the initial appeal.
1:24:08
And I just want to clarify, you know, we're very much committed to accurate bills, accurate charges.
1:24:13
We wanna help customers understand why their bill increased.
1:24:17
We wanna work with them.
1:24:18
If they need to enter into a payment agreement, we have very flexible payment agreement terms.
1:24:23
If they're not signed up from IDP account, I'm so glad you've brought up this topic because we want all of our customers to sign up to have the power.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:24:29
Send up y'all.
Albert Kramer
1:24:30
There we go.
