Yonkers, NY Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

City Charter § C9-13(D) puts the repair duty squarely on the property owner. Once a service pipe connecting a building to the city water main develops a leak, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Works Bureau of Water Works can serve written notice ordering the owner to fix it. Notice can be served personally, left at the owner's residence, mailed to a nonresident owner's last known address, or, if the owner cannot be located after due diligence, posted in a conspicuous place on the property.

The owner then has 48 hours to complete the repair. If the leak continues unrepaired past that 48-hour window, either after notice or simply after 48 hours of leaking, the Commissioner is authorized to send city crews to make the repair directly. The cost is billed to the owner, and if unpaid, the Commissioner certifies the actual repair cost each year before the annual assessment roll is prepared; the City Assessor then adds that amount to the property's general city tax assessment, collected under the same enforcement mechanism and lien priority as ordinary city taxes.

Subsection E strips away the 48-hour notice requirement entirely where a leak threatens loss or damage to the city or others: in that emergency scenario the Commissioner posts notice on the premises and, if the leak isn't fixed promptly, has city crews repair it immediately, with the cost still becoming a lien on the real property. The Commissioner also must try to serve a copy of that emergency posting on the owner or occupant personally. This regime sits inside Charter Article IX, Part B, the Bureau of Water Works provisions added by Local Law No. 5-1996 and amended through 2017.