DC Water must now post your association's arrears at every unit
DC Water must now post your association's arrears at every unit
2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Compliance
If a District of Columbia association falls behind on its water bill, DC Water must now tell every unit in the building — by name, by dollar amount, and 30 working days before the water goes off. The requirement took effect on August 14, 2026 under the DC Water and Sewer Authority Billing and Disconnection Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2025, and it is the first time District law has written condominium and community associations into the shutoff notice chain.1
What the measure does
The Act amends 21 DCMR § 431 by statute, and retitles it to speak of “occupants” rather than “tenants” — the change that pulls owner-occupied buildings inside it.
Where the notice goes. “At least thirty (30) working days prior to terminating water and sewer services to the premises, the General Manager shall post notice outside of the premises, and at each unit if publicly accessible and where practicable.” Notice must be given in English, Spanish, or another language occupants are likely to speak.
What the notice must say. This is the operative change. The notice must inform occupants that “the owner, condominium association, community association, or other common interest development is delinquent in the payment of water and sewer service charges, including the current amount owed and the number of days the account is past due.”2
Occupant remedies became mandatory. Where the prior text said the Authority “may permit” occupants to act to prevent termination, it now says “shall permit.” The provision also cross-references receivership under § 34-2304(a)(1).
Reporting. DC Water must report disconnections monthly to the Council, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the People's Counsel and the Office of the Tenant Advocate.
The late-charge cap moved too
The same Act rewrites D.C. Code § 34-2202.16(d). The Authority may impose “a charge of 10% for any charges or bills remaining unpaid for more than 30 days, and a penalty at the rate of 1% per month compounded monthly for any charges or bills that remain unpaid for more than 60 days.”3 Section 34-2407.01 was rewritten as well, setting a penalty for unlawful self-restoration of service of not less than 20% of the delinquent charges or $100, whichever is greater.
One procedural fact matters for how long this lasts. The Act is a temporary measure — the DC Law Library's note records the amendments as expiring March 27, 2027 — and it is the second in a chain: an identical temporary act, D.C. Law 26-50, ran from October 1, 2025 and lapsed, with emergency acts covering the gaps.
What it changes for boards and managers
Master-metered buildings are the ones this reaches, and in the District that is most mid-rise and high-rise condominiums and nearly every housing cooperative. For them, the water account has quietly become a governance exposure as well as a budget line.
Arrears are now published to the membership, by regulation. A board that has been managing a water dispute quietly — a contested bill, a suspected leak, a billing correction in progress — should understand that the endgame is a notice on every door stating the association's name, the balance, and the days past due. That is a fact about the board's own communications strategy, not just about DC Water's.
Thirty working days is not thirty days. Working days exclude weekends and District holidays, so the real notice period is closer to six calendar weeks. That is genuine room to resolve a billing dispute, but only for a board that reads the notice when it goes up rather than when an owner forwards a photograph of it.
Audit the late charges against the statutory cap. Ten percent after 30 days, then one percent per month compounded after 60. An association carrying a long-running balance should check what it is actually being billed against that formula, because the cap is only useful to a board that has done the arithmetic.
Receivership is in the text. The cross-reference to § 34-2304(a)(1) is not decorative. A building whose water is about to be cut off is a building where a court-appointed receiver becomes a live possibility, and that is the range of outcomes the statute contemplates.
The unresolved allocation question
Nothing in this Act changes how an association allocates water cost among units. That remains a matter of the condominium instruments and the association's budget and assessment powers. What has changed is the visibility of failure at the association level, which tends to convert an allocation argument into a governance argument.
Two situations to think through before they arrive. The first is the delinquent unit inside a master-metered building: the association owes DC Water for the whole building, so one owner's non-payment of assessments shows up as the association's delinquency, with the association's name on every door. The second is sub-metered and third-party-billed buildings, where the billing vendor sits between the association and the meter and the association may learn of arrears late.
What to watch next
The expiry date. These are temporary amendments and the DC Law Library records them as running out on March 27, 2027. DC has now legislated this material three times in under two years — an emergency, a temporary, another emergency, another temporary — which is the pattern of a Council that intends the rule to stick but has not yet passed it permanently. The rule in force at the time it is needed, not this article's date, is the one that governs.
Related District of Columbia HOA Topics
- D.C. Law 26-165, the DC Water and Sewer Authority Billing and Disconnection Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2025 (Bill 26-680; D.C. Act 26-352; 73 DCR 9216; effective Aug. 14, 2026) ↩
- D.C. Law 26-50, the predecessor temporary act (Bill 26-322; D.C. Act 26-136; 72 DCR 8941; effective Oct. 1, 2025) ↩
- D.C. Code § 34-2202.16, Rates and charges (late charge and penalty provisions) ↩
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