Dade City, FL Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

Section 98-39 of the Dade City Code of Ordinances states plainly that the city carries no responsibility for water lost to leaks, or lost any other way, on the private property of a consumer, and is under no obligation to make a bill adjustment for it. That rule sits among several related water-department provisions that reinforce the same allocation of responsibility. Section 98-40 gives water department officers and employees the right to enter a consumer's premises at any reasonable hour to make tests and inspections, which is the department's own tool for catching problems, not a substitute for the owner watching their own plumbing.

00 up to two inches; if the meter is found to be over-registering by more than two percent the test fee is refunded and the bill corrected, but a meter reading within that tolerance is treated as conclusive against the owner, so a suspiciously high bill traced to a leak still is not adjusted under section 98-39. 00 for a first, second and third occurrence after notice. Read together, these sections put the entire cost, detection and repair burden for a private-side leak on the property owner, with the city's role limited to reading and, on request, testing the meter.