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.
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.