What happens if you miss a Scottsdale backflow deadline?

Subsection (c) applies when an owner or account holder fails to install a device or take an action Sec. 49-62 requires. The trigger is the city's written notice that says what must be done. The deadlines:

• 90 days to install a required device.
• 30 days to perform a necessary action, such as testing.

If the deadline passes, the division may do one of two things:

1. 1Install it for you. If feasible, the city installs the device or performs the action on the owner's behalf and adds the cost to the next regular invoice to the account holder.
2. 2Discontinue water service. The city may shut off service under Sec. 49-66 until the required device is installed.

Separately, once a customer is designated non-compliant, the water rate per 1,000 gallons is, in the code's words, "adjusted by one hundred fifty (150) percent" for one full billing cycle, or until the customer is deemed compliant, whichever comes later. Subsection (d) requires the notice to warn the owner that the city may install a device at the owner's expense or discontinue service.

• Account holder: the person or entity whose name is on the city water account. The notice goes to the owner or account holder, so a tenant may not see it unless the landlord forwards it.
• Adjusted by 150 percent: the code does not say whether the rate becomes 150 percent of the current rate or rises by 150 percent on top of it. Ask Utility Billing which reading applies before you budget for it.
• Deemed compliant: the code does not define it. The reasonable reading is that the required assembly is installed, tested and reported to the city.

Any owner or account holder who has been sent a notice under Sec. 49-62. That includes businesses whose use is on the required-premises list and homeowners with a sewage ejector, house pump or storage tank. These installation and action deadlines run from written notice; the separate annual testing and other backflow duties still apply without waiting for a new notice.

A car wash that ignores a notice. The notice orders an RP assembly. After 90 days with no device, the city installs one and adds the cost to the water bill, and the car wash also pays the surcharge on its heavy usage for at least a cycle.

A landlord who never opened the mail. The notice went to the account holder. Ten weeks pass. The landlord finds the letter and has only about 20 days left to get an assembly permitted and installed. Our permit page covers the steps.

The edge case: the surcharge on a heavy user. A property with a large irrigation load faces the code's 150 percent water-rate adjustment for at least a full cycle. Obtain the applicable billed rate from Utility Billing rather than treating this summary as a surcharge calculation. The penalty grows with water use, so a big user should get compliant fast.

1. 1Find the date on the city's notice and count 90 or 30 days from it.
2. 2Confirm which action the notice asks for, an install or another action.
3. 3Get a certified contractor booked this week. Certified testers are listed on the city's commercial services page.
4. 4Keep proof of each step and send the test record to the city within 7 days after the work.
5. 5Call Scottsdale Water Quality at the current number on the city's Commercial Services page if the notice is unclear or you believe it was sent in error.

• "The surcharge is a one-time fee." It is a rate adjustment that lasts a full billing cycle or until you are deemed compliant, whichever is later.
• "The city has to shut us off first." The city may install the device and bill you instead, which avoids an interruption but still costs you.
• "We never got the notice." The city sends it to the owner or account holder of record. Keep that mailing address current.

This page summarizes the code. The adopted text on Municode governs.