Scottsdale, AZ Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

Under Scottsdale Code of Ordinances Sec. 49-46, the property owner or account holder, not the City, is responsible for all leaks or damage from the service pipes running from the customer's side of the meter to the unit of service, and is billed for every gallon consumed through that leak. The City will not simply forgive a high leak bill: it offers a narrow, conditional credit instead. To qualify for the lower-tier rate under Sec. 49-48, usage during the billing period must run at least three times the same period the prior year, and the account holder must contact the Utility Billing Department within six months of when the customer knew or should have known about the unexplained usage.

A similar lower-tier credit cannot have already been applied within the prior sixty months, and the adjustment is capped at one month of unexplained usage inside that sixty-month window. Customers on automatic meter reading (AMR) service must be enrolled in the City's WaterSmart program to qualify, or submit a written exemption request to the Business Services Director if they lack an email address for that program. Adjustments are decided per account, run from a $25 minimum up to a $1,500 maximum credit, and are limited to residential customers.

Before the City will approve the credit, the account holder must produce proof of repair, either a paid invoice or a receipt for parts purchased for a self-repair. Separately, Sec. 49-31 requires property owners and account holders to keep valves, meter boxes and service lines clear of debris and vegetation so City crews can read and maintain the meter; if the Water Resources Division finds a meter box inaccessible, the account holder gets written notice and thirty days to fix the obstruction before further penalties apply.

For genuinely defective meters (over- or under-reporting), Sec. 49-46(a) lets the Water Resources Division Director estimate corrected usage from historical records, but the City will not bill or credit for usage more than thirty-six months before the defect was discovered.