Rates & Billing

​Pandemic Customer Assistance

​Current Stage and Customer Assistance Plan

Charlotte Water is moving into the next stage of customer assistance by:
  • Continuing the temporary practice of not disconnecting customers for delinquent account balances and not imposing later charges.
  • Automatically placing customers with past due balances as of September 30 on a 12-month, no interest payment arrangement.
  • Actively working with customers to address and resolve their past due balances through payment arrangements and financial assistance.
  • Though Charlotte Water has suspended charging late fees and disconnecting service for non-payment, the utility cannot legally forgive past due balances. Customers continue to accrue past due balances. Please contact our Customer Care Team by calling 311 and get help paying your bill from the agencies we have partnered with. Our Team will help you select the best option for your situation.
Customers with past due balances should continue to make payments to avoid the accumulation of higher past due balances and future disconnection. As long as a customer is on a payment arrangement, the customer will not face a disconnection notice.

Act Now. Don’t Wait. 
Contact Us Soon for Help – Some Funding Expires Dec. 31, 2020

Charlotte Water strongly encourages any customers experiencing financial hardships to seek assistance with one of the four assistance programs. These programs are funded now but the funding expires in less than 60 days.

Charlotte Water has established the Customer Care Team, a dedicated group of trained customer service professionals to work with customers. Our team will connect customers with community assistance agencies to help pay their bill and work through financial hardships one-on-one.

Charlotte Water is now collaborating with three local non-profit organizations to provide financial assistance to customers. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership joins Crisis Assistance Ministry and Common Wealth Charlotte as agencies poised and funded to help Charlotte Water customers with past due balances.

 Related Links

 Frequently Asked Questions

​No, all customers that have a past due balance as of September 30th will be placed on a 12-month payment arrangement. Your next bill (in October) will reflect your first payment plan installment in addition to new bill amounts.

​If you are financially able to do so, you can make overpayments or pay the entire balance of your payment arrangement plan at any time. Any overpayment will be applied to the oldest charges on your account.

​If you need to modify the terms of your payment plan or if you have questions or concerns, please contact 311 (or 704-336-7600).

Also, Charlotte Water is partnering with several community resources that may be able to assist you with paying your bill. To connect with those agencies, please contact 311.


​Charlotte Water is automatically placing customers with past due balances as of September 30 on a 12-month, no interest payment arrangement beginning with the October 2020 bill. A payment arrangement does not resolve the need for our customers to pay their bills.

Customers with past due balances should continue to make payments to avoid the accumulation of higher past due balances and future disconnection. As long as a customer is on a payment arrangement, the customer will not face a disconnection notice.

Please contact our Customer Care Team by calling 311 and get help paying your bill from the agencies we have partnered with. Our Team will help you select the best option for your situation.



​

To get help with funding and billing assistance, visit the agencies listed below. To speak with the Customer Care Team, please call 311. Our Team can help you select the best option for your situation.

The Housing Partnership is an affordable housing organization, serving low- and moderate-income individuals, families and communities through real estate development, homeownership education and financing, and neighborhood revitalization.
  • Customers can apply online for funding.
Crisis Assistance provides assistance  and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency.
  • Curbside rent and utility assistance is available for Mecklenburg County residents at 500-A Spratt St on Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
  • Payments are made directly to the landlord or utility company.
Common Wealth Charlotte (CWC) works to empower Charlotte's working poor to achieve financial independence through innovative financial education and capability services. 

Background
  • On March 12, 2020, account disconnections for nonpayment were suspended. Those customers who were disconnected at the time were reconnected. 
  • As of March 23, 2020, a new assessment of late fees associated with delinquent accounts were suspended. 
  • On March 31, the Governor of North Carolina issued Executive Order 124 (and then extended by Executive Order 142) stating that utilities across North Carolina were required to discontinue customer disconnections of service for non-payment to reduce hardships caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, the Executive Order called for the discontinuation of late fee charges on past due balances.
  • Executive Order (124/142) expired on July 29, 2020.