Under City Code 37-146, Phoenix can shut off your water after 10 days written notice, or right away if your system could be a health hazard. It can also add up to 1,000 percent to your water charges per billing period. Service comes back only after the test is done and you pay the city's costs and penalties.
What counts as a violation in Phoenix
Late testing is only one of the triggers. Section 37-146 lets the city act when a customer, among other things:
- Fails to properly locate, install, test or maintain a required backflow assembly
- Removes or bypasses a required assembly without prior approval
- Allows a cross connection to occur
- Fails to timely submit records of tests and repairs
That last one catches people. A passing test that never reaches the city looks the same, on paper, as no test at all. City Code 37-143 requires the customer to test "at least once a year" and to submit test records "by the date specified by the Planning and Development Director."
Getting water back on after a shutoff
Phoenix restores service "when the condition forming the basis for the termination has been remedied to the satisfaction of the Planning and Development Director." Before it does, the customer "must pay all costs, fees, and expenses incurred by the City, and all surcharges and penalties relating to the termination and restoration of water service."
For a restaurant, a medical office or an apartment building, a single day without water can close the doors. That's why the notice letter deserves the same urgency as a leak. State law backs shutoff too. Under Arizona's backflow rule, A.A.C. R18-4-215, a user's failure to install a required assembly is cause for the water system to end service.
What to do today if you're late
- 1Book a certified tester now. Pick one your provider accepts. Phoenix keeps a list of approved backflow tester companies on its Backflow Prevention Program page.
- 2Get the report filed, not just the test done. In Phoenix the signed report goes to Backflow.Prevention@phoenix.gov or by mail to 438 W. Adams St. Ask the tester to confirm the date they sent it.
- 3If the assembly fails, start the repair the same visit. A failed test doesn't clear the notice. The city needs a passing result.
- 4Call if you have a notice in hand. Phoenix's Backflow Prevention Program is at 602-534-2140. Tell them the test is booked and when.
- 5Keep copies. Phoenix requires you to keep testing records for at least three years (City Code 37-143). They're your proof if a notice shows up for a report you already sent.
Reports can bounce, too. Phoenix returns reports "lacking information or with inaccurate information" to the tester for correction, with a copy to the owner, so a missing meter number can cost you days.
How other Valley cities handle a missed test
Same idea everywhere, very different timelines. If your water comes from a neighboring city, its rules apply, not Phoenix's.
| City | What happens after a missed test | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Phoenix | Civil penalty up to 1,000% of water charges per billing period; shutoff after 10 days written notice, immediate for a health hazard | City Code 37-146 |
| Chandler | Notices at 60 days, then 30, then 5 days before the due date. No passing report by the compliance date means water "will be shut off on the following working day" | Chandler Backflow Testing Process |
| Scottsdale | A 30-day notice, then a certified second notice giving 10 more days before disconnection. Reconnection adds a fee of at least two hours of labor | Revised Code 49-65, 49-66 |
| Mesa | A backflow compliance late fee for late records, possible civil or criminal action, and termination of service | City Code 8-1-11, 8-1-13, 8-1-16 |
| Tempe | Service may be discontinued until the assembly is tested and maintained; 20 days written notice in a non-emergency | City Code 33-109 |
Chandler's timeline is the tightest in the Valley, with no grace period after the due date. Scottsdale's is the longest. A separate Scottsdale surcharge applies when a customer fails to install a required assembly after written notice: under Revised Code 49-62, the water rate "will be adjusted by one hundred fifty (150) percent" for at least one billing cycle. Its code also says a fire sprinkler supply line "shall not be subject to disconnection" under that section, though penalties still apply.
Two details in that table are easy to miss. In Chandler, once water is off, it stays off until the city gets a passing report or a test is done with a Water Quality representative watching. In Mesa, repeat problems escalate: a person found responsible for three or more civil violations of the backflow chapter who violates it again "shall be guilty of a criminal misdemeanor" (City Code 8-1-17).
### Situations where the notice surprises people
"We did test it." The most common case isn't a skipped test. It's a report that never arrived or came back incomplete. Phoenix returns incomplete reports to the tester and sends a copy to the owner, so check your mail and email for a returned report before assuming the city made a mistake. Then send the corrected report, not a new test.
A tenant runs the business. Phoenix sends the ten days' notice to the service address, which is where the tenant is. The testing and reporting duty sits with the "customer," which City Code 37-143 defines as "any person that has physical control, authority or responsibility for a water system." That can be the owner, the tenant or both, so the lease should say who books the test.
Several assemblies, one property. A strip center or a campus can have an assembly on the main service, another on irrigation and more at equipment inside. Each one has its own serial number and its own due date. One overdue assembly is enough to start the enforcement steps for that service.
The state notice rule. Arizona's backflow rule requires the water system to notify users when a test is needed and by when. If you moved or changed managers, update your mailing and email contacts with the provider, because the notice goes where the account says.
How to stay off the notice list
Put the test on the calendar a month before it's due, not the week of. Keep your contact details current with your water provider, since Chandler, for one, puts that job on the owner. And when a tenant runs the business, decide in writing who books the test, since the city can hold whoever controls the water system to it.
For where your report goes if you're outside Phoenix, see where to send backflow test reports in the Phoenix area. For the annual cycle itself, read do you have to register your backflow assembly with Phoenix. If the test turns up a problem, what happens after a backflow assembly fails its test covers the repair and retest.
HQ Plumbing & Air tests and repairs backflow assemblies on domestic water and irrigation lines across the Valley. Free estimates, upfront pricing, and 24/7 emergency service when a deadline is close.