Leak Adjustment Policy

EXHIBITS TO THE CLIFTON WATER DISTRICT  -  RULES AND REGULATIONS.

EXHIBIT I    -    LEAK ADJUSTMENT POLICY

Effective Date: 9/11/2025

Purpose and Scope

The Leak Adjustment Policy is designed to assist customers in good standing, having an abnormally high water bill, resulting from a leak on the customer’s property from the meter to the building structure.

Responsibilities

Customer Service Representatives are usually the first point of contact with regards to customer leaks and will provide customers with the leak adjustment application form or exception request. Completed leak adjustment applications or requests will be submitted to the Front Office Supervisor for review. All exception requests will be sent to the District Manager or Assistant Manager for approval.

Policy Statement

  1. Connections to the main line for the purpose of watering landscaping do not qualify for a leak adjustment.
    • 1.1    The Customer is responsible for the customer side of the meter to customer’s home (customer side). It is the customer’s responsibility to operate, maintain and repair piping and plumbing on the customer’s side after the meter. All water usage registered by the water meter is the responsibility of the customer.
  2. Once a leak is detected on the customer side of the meter, the customer must notify the District immediately.
    • 2.1    To qualify for a leak adjustment, the water use during the leak event must exceed twice the average monthly usage, as determined by the District, excluding zero usage billing cycles.
  3. Policy Applicability and Conditions
    • 3.1    Repairs should be made in a timely manner as determined by the District, no leak adjustment will be considered until the leak has been confirmed as repaired. 
    • 3.2   The Customer shall complete a Leak Adjustment Request Form and submit the form (including all receipts from the repair) to the District within 30 calendar days of the notification of the leak.
  4. One Leak Adjustment will be considered per property per 12-month period and will cover a period of water loss not to exceed two monthly billing cycles.   The two billing cycles that will be used in this adjustment calculation will be the month the leak began, and the month directly following.
  5.  At District Managements’ discretion, and only if the leak adjustment does not meet the criteria defined as the main water line from the meter to the structure, a courtesy adjustment may be approved of up to 50% of the calculated leak adjustment discount. 

Procedures and Guidelines

Front Office Staff or designee will need to provide the appropriate form and instructions to any customer requesting assistance, be it a Leak Adjustment and/or a Courtesy (exception) Adjustment.  Staff should never speculate on any assistance that may be approved.  It’s important that the appropriate expectations are set with any application, to include that management may take up to 2 weeks to approve and apply any appropriate credits to a customer(s) account.  Additionally, Staff should assist customers as needed with any questions they may have on the policy and/or the form(s).

Compliance and Consequences

This policy is intended to provide assistance to customers that experienced high usage, and resulting in higher billing, due to a leak, or various other circumstances. All customers are to be treated equally, and failure to follow the policy could result in setting of an unwanted precedent, or the appearance of bias. Both the leak adjustment and the exception request form include a section where the customer is asked to explain the high usage event, what caused it, how and when it was repaired, and any other relevant information. The adjustment calculators are used to ensure all adjustments are calculated the same for each of the three different billing rates. Per the policy, the two billing cycles used for the adjustment calculation will that of the leak event, and the month following, thus eliminating “cherry picking” of usage months. This, combined with the use of the calculators, ensures that adjustment calculations are done fairly, and equally, for all customers.

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