General Billing Information

Sewer Billing Methodology

Like most water/sewer utilities, the Allen County Sanitary Engineering Department is a separate, government enterprise fund established to be self-supporting. The majority of our revenue is derived from user charges – those charges for services provided to customers. These charges may include fees, rates, assessments, and billings that are charged to customers who benefit from the various services provided and are determined through a detailed process of allocating the costs of the service to the beneficiaries of the services. Therefore, the Allen County Sanitary Engineering Department takes great care to ensure that the rates are determined with equity, cost of service, fairness, and financial stability in mind. The Allen County Sanitary Engineering Department’s rate structure is a flat rate based charge that includes the cost operating and maintaining our wastewater collection systems and wastewater treatment plants as well as covers the cost of administrative services and major capital debt service.

The Allen County Sanitary Engineering Department currently uses a flat rate billing process due to the extensive amount of publication obligations issued for capital improvements that are based on the sewer revenues generated from the customers. In addition, when the sewer district was initially formed and public sewers were constructed the customers did not have metered public water.

The sewer bill is calculated using a flat rate fee method billed quarterly for each residential customer. Condominiums, apartments, commercial and industrial users are typically more per quarter due to a higher estimated water usage. A rate factor table is used to calculate the charges based on the occupancy classification of the structure. Customers have the option to sign up for monthly and quarterly auto pay. Please contact our office for the current base flat rate charge per household.

Sewer Billing Periods

Paper sewer bills are issued quarterly, and are charged based on service provided the prior quarter. For example, the sewer bill providing service for the January-February-March is mailed in May and due in June. The fiscal year runs from July 1st of one year to June 30th of the following year. Second quarter billing, April-May-June, is the end of our fiscal year and all past due balances on a sewer account will be certified as a lien to the Auditor for collection through the property tax collection the following year.

Rental Property Billing

It is not recommended to have the sewer bills mailed to tenants. The sewer charges stay with the parcel not the occupant. Therefore, the owner is ultimately responsible for the sewer charge which includes all delinquencies. We do not accept combination partial billing payments by tenant and owner. We advise all owners of rentals who have the bill directly sent to the tenant to periodically review the status of the account balance for the property.