Act 43: What Water & Sewer Systems Need to Know about the Impact on Multi-Family Billings

An amendment to the Pennsylvania Municipality Authorities Act allows the owner of a multi-family dwelling to request a billing adjustment every five years if the amount billed exceeds the usage by 30% or more.  This could have wide-ranging impacts for water and sewer authorities that serve multi-family dwellings.  Our vice president Russ McIntosh discusses all of the implications in two articles in The Authority, a magazine published by the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association.  The first article analyzes the language of  Act 43 line-by-line to advise authorities on how to comply. (Link opens in new tab.) The second article answers some frequently asked questions about Act 43 such as:

Is Act 43 retroactive?

Does act 43 affect the way I calculate tapping fees?

For larger garden apartment communities, should each building’s water meter be considered individually or combined with other buildings in the same community?

Act 43 requires authorities to compare metered water consumption with “actual usage” billed. How do you make this comparison if you bill on a flat rate?

Visit the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association website at the links above to read these articles, and reach out to us with any questions you may have.