By Brandon Henry
AFRO Intern
Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) recently introduced a bill to give more transparency and precise timelines for when D.C. Water can begin to disconnect water services to District of Columbia homes.
D.C. Water is facing an increasing balance of unpaid bills for water and sewer services it is providing, with the debt being north of $35 million. Due to this, earlier in the year, D.C. Water started service disconnections within apartment and other multifamily buildings among the District; from 2- or 4-plexes to large, market-rate buildings that house hundreds of people.
This has created an alarming problem for residents who have been faithfully paying rent, including a portion for water, only to receive a shutoff notice when their landlord has failed to pay the building’s water bill.
“Water is a basic human need, so disconnecting water service is very serious. While D.C. Water needs to be paid for its critical services that keep our city running, property owners deserve more information, and tenants also need to know if their landlord hasn’t been paying the water bill and what to do next,” said Councilmember Allen. “This bill requires D.C. Water to better communicate about potential disconnections and tenants’ legal rights, creates a way for tenants to assume the bill in their name and incentivizes landlords to install submeters for each unit to help eliminate the risk of entire buildings losing water.”
In multiple bigger apartment buildings in D.C., dissimilar with electric service, lone apartment units do not have individual water meters, also known as a sub meter. It is only the individual “master” water meter that works for the entire building. The landlord receives water payments from their tenants and is completely responsible for the bill. For instance, if there was a property owner that fell behind on mortgage payments and ultimately stopped paying the water bill to keep paying the mortgage–even for a little, residents would be clueless to being at risk of disconnection, even if they paid their bill. Residents would also be clueless as to their next course of action.
The D.C. Water Billing and Disconnection Modernization Amendment Act of 2025 shall bring more equity, clarity and accountability to D.C. Water’s billing and disconnection methods for property owners and tenants. Main provisions include:
- Setting consistent timelines regarding billing and disconnections, implementing a longer timeline for disconnections for the elderly and people living with disabilities
- Preventing shutoffs during extreme weather, whether heat or cold
- Requiring D.C. Water to notify the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection when a property has overdue water bills, ensuring an accurate “clean hands” review process
- Mandating that tenants in every affected unit receive multilingual notice before a potential disconnection
- Allowing tenants to transfer service into their own names if their landlord fails to pay, even when there is only one building-wide meter
- Enforcing D.C. Water to create programs for amnesty and incentive to get landlords into good standing, also incentivizing installations of standalone water meters in every unit
- Requiring D.C. Water to submit monthly reports to the Council detailing disconnections, delinquencies, liens, as well as other enforcement methods to ensure better oversight on the disconnection process
This legislation builds on Councilmember Allen’s earlier emergency and temporary measures, approved by the Council during the summer, which improved notice requirements, updated billing standards and expanded assistance for vulnerable households while giving District agencies time to intervene before disconnections occur.
Councilmembers Robert White, Brooke Pinto, Janeese Lewis George, Matt Frumin, Trayon White and Brianne K. Nadeau co-introduced the measure.