Everett council adjusts utility billing delinquency rules
Published 2:30 pm Friday, December 19, 2025
EVERETT — The Everett City Council approved future changes to the city’s utility billing practices on Wednesday, extending the amount of time customers get before they can have water service shut off for lack of payment.
Current city code gives residents get 15 days to pay water bills and 20 days to pay sewage disposal bills, although the city says current practice is to allow 21 days for both. The new ordinance, set to go into effect in 90 days, will give residents 20 days to pay both water and sewer bills.
It also gives individuals 10 days after the due date until they are considered delinquent. Under current law, delinquent customers are subject to water service being shut off, although city staff have said current practice is to provide multiple notices over a number of weeks before a shut off can occur. The new ordinance will also require that a shut-off cannot occur until a customer has been delinquent for at least 30 days.
Under the new law, an individual could not have their water shut off for nonpayment of bills until 60 days after the bill was issued. Currently, the earliest an individual could have their water shut off is around 40 days after the bill was issued, according to Everett Public Works Director Ryan Sass.
Wednesday’s vote to adjust the delinquency process followed a number of amendments to an ordinance, proposed by council member Mary Fosse, that would have changed Everett law to extend the due dates of both water and sewer bills to 28 days, rather than 20.
Fosse worked to make those changes after she heard complaints from residents regarding the short turnaround to make bill payments and a $5 fee associated with late notices that could arrive a few days after missing the due date. She said the ordinance would give more grace to consumers who are already facing an affordability crisis and could improve efficiency for the city.
Everett staff had concerns over parts of the ordinance, however. The reason city staff have the timeline in place is to give staff enough time to receive payments and process the next month’s billing, Sass said. Shortening that window could lead to more staff work and more complaints from residents who see bills that don’t reflect recent payments, he said. The city had no objection to the clause in the ordinance requiring 30 days of delinquency before a shut-off could occur.
After discussion, the original ordinance was amended to retain the 20-day timelines currently utilized by the city, but give individuals 10 days after the due date until they are considered delinquent. Another amendment delayed the ordinance’s implementation for 90 days after its approval. City staff are also expected to provide a report on the new ordinance at a future committee meeting.
The city is exploring implementing other ways of notifying customers when an account is past due, either through a text, email or reverse phone call, city staffer Jennifer Gregerson said Wednesday, as a way to prevent the $5 fees for physical late notices. The fees were implemented to recover the costs of sending the notices, which have lowered the amount of individuals who have received shut-off notices, Sass said.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
