(A) Person responsible for payment.
(1) Utility charges, rents, fees, rates and penalties connected therewith shall be the legal obligation of the property owner only when:
(a) The owner is also the tenant;
(b) The property or premises is leased or rented to more than 1 tenant and services rendered to more than 1 tenant are measured by the same meter.
(2) Except as provided in division (A)(1) above, water, sewer and/or sanitation charges, rents, fees, rates and penalties shall be the legal obligation of the person contracting for services.
(B) Multiple meter users.
(1) Two or more commercial or industrial units or residential dwelling units, including but not limited to multifamily houses, apartments, duplexes and mobile homes, receiving water through the same water meter shall pay, if separate meters are not installed, the minimum utility bill for water, sewer and sanitation service, as applicable, for each unit being served through the meter. Any water usage exceeding the total minimum usage for the number of units served by 1 meter shall be charged in accordance with approved water and sewer rate schedules.
(2) Once established, the number of utility minimums to be paid for any water meter shall not be reduced until the property owner notifies the Director of Finance in writing for the reduction.
(3) The property owner is hereby responsible for immediately notifying the Director of Finance of any increase in the number of units being served by any water meter.
(4) The town water meter reader shall report each month the number of mobile homes connected to or in position to be connected to the town water system or to a private system which obtains its water from the town. The number reported by the meter reader if greater than the number established in this section shall be the number of minimums charged to the applicable meter.
(5) The town cannot determine whether or not a dwelling, commercial or industrial unit has been vacant for some or all of any utility billing period. Therefore, the number of minimum charged for each billing period will be equal to the number of active or potential commercial, industrial or dwelling units served by the water meter in accordance with this section.
(C) Penalties for late payment and nonpayment.
(1) Due date. Utility bills mailed on or about the first workday of any month shall be past due and delinquent if not paid by or on the tenth day of the month. All customers or user accounts past due and delinquent shall be placed on a list which shall be continually modified to reflect late payments. Any utility account paid after the tenth day of the month shall have added to the month’s total due a late payment fee, in the amount established from time to time by the Board, to cover the administrative costs of processing the late payment.
(2) Disconnection for late payment.
(a) It is the policy of the town to discontinue utility service to customers by reason of nonpayment of bills only after notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard on disputed bills. The town’s form for application for utility service and all bills shall contain clearly visible and easily readable provisions to the effect that:
1. All bills are due and payable on or before the tenth day of each month;
2. If any bill is not paid by or before the tenth, a notice of nonpayment, disclosing the town’s intent to disconnect service, will be mailed; and
3. Any customer disputing the correctness of his or her bill shall have a right to a hearing at which time he or she may be represented in person and by counsel or any other person of his or her choosing and may present orally or in writing his or her complaint and contentions to the town official in charge of utility billing, who shall make a final determination of the customer’s complaint.
(3) Late payment and cut-on fees.
(a) Any bill paid after the tenth day of the month shall cause a late payment penalty to be assessed.
(b) No service shall be restored after the proper disconnection under the previous section until all bills for service and late payment fees then due have been paid and the following cut-on fee has been paid:
1. Thirty-five dollars if:
a. The request for service is made before 3:30 p.m. on a workday for town employees (in which case service will be restored for that day); or
b. The party requesting service is willing to wait for service for as long as the end of the next workday for town employees;
2. Fifty dollar fee if the request is for service to be restored in the day of the request and the request is made after 3:30 p.m. on a workday for town employees; or
3. Seventy-five dollar fee if the request is for service to be restored on a non-workday for town employees (a town holiday or a Saturday or Sunday).
(4) Extensions of due date. The Board may establish policies and procedures for granting short term, temporary extensions of the utility bill due date for users to pay the current month’s utility bill because of temporary unexpected circumstances.
(5) Removal and reinstallation of meters. If any utility user or customer, after having his or her water meter cut off by the town cuts-on, has his or her meter cut-on or allows his or her meter to be cut-on, the water meter shall be immediately removed. A removed meter shall not be reinstalled at the location or address at which the meter was removed until all due utility bills, late payment fees, cut-on fees and meter reinstallation fees are paid in full by the customer or property owner. The meter installation fee shall be an amount established from time to time by the Board.
(6) Severing sewer connections. Failure to pay utility bills in accordance with this subchapter may result in the disconnection of the individual sewer collection line or building sewer. If disconnected or severed, the line or sewer will not be reconnected until the total bill due, fees and penalties are paid in full. In addition, the cost of reconnection including material and labor will be paid in full by the user. Disconnection or severance of lines shall automatically make the user in violation hereof.
(D) Protesting unusually high bills.
(1) A citizen protesting an unusually high water and sewer bill may claim a hardship if the charges are significantly higher than their normal average bill for that season, upon providing evidence that major repairs have been made and the system is up to standard.
(2) The sewer bill may be adjusted to the citizen’s seasonally average charge for that season. Seasonal average is to be computed on at least 3 months’ charges. A citizen protesting an unusually high water and sewer bill may claim a hardship when that charge is significantly higher than their seasonal average and if the meter is inoperative or defective, the bill shall be adjusted to the normal average for that season.
(Ord. passed 3-12-2002; Am. Ord. 16-167, passed 6-21-2016)