Council Votes to Refund $500,000 for Sewer Fees

The City Council voted Wednesday to refund $500,000 to Los Angeles property owners who were billed sewer service charges even though they are connected to septic tanks.

“People shouldn’t be charged for services they are not receiving,” Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski said.

About 25,000 Los Angeles property owners--many of them in the San Fernando Valley--dump their sewage into septic tanks or the county sewer system.

Seven years ago the city adopted a policy intended to end charging sewer fees to people not using the system while providing for a refund process.

Under the old policy, people who filed claims by Jan. 1, 1992, were entitled to refunds of all sewer fees paid previously.

Although the city was aware billing-system problems meant some property owners were still being improperly billed after 1992, the original policy said those filing claims after Jan. 1 of that year were only entitled to refunds of six months’ worth of payments, said Shahram Kharaghani, a spokesman for the city Bureau of Sanitation.

The new policy adopted Wednesday waives the six-month limitation, allowing property owners not using the city sewer system to get refunds of all the sewer fees they have paid.

Kharaghani said there are about 100 property owners who will share in the refunds, but much of the $500,000 will go to government agencies, including Caltrans, which was billed for freeway properties that used sprinkler systems.