Fire line charge on a 6 inch service that feeds absolutely nothing

Found this on a strip center laundromat. There is a monthly private fire protection charge on the
water bill, 6 inch service, 188 dollars a month, going back as far as the records I have.

Walked the building with the client. There is no sprinkler system. There is no standpipe. There is a
capped stub in the back of the mechanical room that appears to have been intended for a system that
was never installed. The tenant improvement was done in 2009 and the fire line charge starts in the
2010 billing.

So they have been paying roughly 2,200 a year for 14 years for protection that does not exist.

Where I am stuck is the recovery path. The water utility will almost certainly say the charge is for
availability of the connection, not for a functioning system, and that the capped stub is still a
connection. I think that argument is weak but I want to know if anyone has beaten it. Also unclear
whether the statute of limitations here runs from each monthly bill or from the original
installation.

On the availability argument, read the actual tariff or ordinance language for the private fire protection charge. In some water tariffs the charge attaches to a service connected to a fire protection system, not to any capped stub. Ask the utility for the service record on that line: when it was activated, whether it was ever inspected, and whether a backflow device was ever tested on it. A line billed as active with no inspection or backflow record is hard for them to explain.

On the limitations question I would not assume it is settled either way. Some jurisdictions treat each monthly bill as a separate charge, others run the clock from the first wrong bill, and some tariffs set their own billing adjustment window that overrides the general statute. Pull the tariff provision on billing errors first, then check the state rule. Even the conservative reading usually leaves some recoverable history, and asking them to stop the charge going forward is worth doing right away.