COMMONLY ASKED BILLING QUESTIONS :

When should I expect my water bill?  Water bills are sent to different parts of town quarterly. Depending on where you live, you will receive bills on or about the first of January, April, July & October; February, May, August & November or March, June, September & December. We do this because we are not equipped to bill everyone all at once. Billing is still done in-house and can be time consuming.

Why don't you bill with the sewer bills? Back in 1938, the residents of West Boylston decided to provide safe, clean drinking water without having to pay the MWRA to provide it. At that time, you still were not required to tie into the public sewer system. The pipes are two different systems that require different licensing. The town had considered absorbing the Water District at one point, but the towns people voted it down at annual meeting as it did not make economic sense to do so. The DPW sub-contracts a private company to maintain the sewer system but bills in-house at the end of every quarter.

How do you read my meter? Most of our West Boylston homes have meters that are equipped with a transponder that sends a signal to our reader that is programmed specifically with their unique code. We simply can't mix up the readings. The readings are stored on a cloud-based system, where they are input into our billing software.

Where is my meter? Your meter is installed inside your home. It generally is in a utility closet and/or basement where the water service line comes in. Your meters consist of a brass base and a transponder that sits on top of the base.

What if I think the reading is wrong? Check your meter. There is a numeric reading on the transponder. If the reading on your bill is less than the one on your transponder, everything seems to be in good working order. Keep in mind, at every billing cycle, we run reports that look for anomalies in your usage. If anything looks funky, we send back out for another reading. If we are still not happy with what we see, we will call you. It is very important that you keep your contact information up to date!

When are the bills due? They are due 30 days after issued. So, if you have a September 1 bill, it will be due on October 1. We generally give a bit of a grace period to allow for life, the US Postal service and the like, but finance charges, which are minimal, will accrue on the 15th of the following month. If we still receive no payment by the first of the next month (November 1 in this case) you will be charged late fees of $10.00 per month. 

How can I see my current amount due? Current charges can be seen in real time through our payment portal. You need to set up an account, but it allows you to view bills, see if they've been paid, look back at history, and may a payment if you so choose. The payment portal can be assessed through the home page of this web site.

I see that I have finance charges assessed. Why didn't you send me a new bill? We are not equipped to bill for finance charges as it does not make financial sense for us to do so. It currently costs the District more than one dollar to send paper bills and most finance charges are under that amount. We'd be losing money.

I'm having trouble paying my bill. What should I do? Call us. You will find that we are willing to work with anyone who asks for help. Generally, if you make a small, good faith payment every month, we will not assess late fees or shut off the water, although we will still accrue finance charges on past due balances.