California Water Shutoff Protection Act: Notice, Plans, Reconnection

California’s Water Shutoff Protection Act bars residential water utilities from disconnecting your service until your bill has been delinquent for at least 60 days, and requires them to give you written notice, offer a payment plan, and honor stronger protections if someone in your home has a medical need and your household income is limited. The law lives in Health and Safety Code sections 116900 through 116920 and applies to community water systems across the state, both public and private.

Sixty Days Before Any Shutoff

A covered water system cannot shut off your residential service until your bill is at least 60 days past due.¹ The clock starts the day after the payment deadline on the bill, not the date the bill was mailed. One missed payment, a disputed charge, or a billing mistake that takes a few weeks to untangle cannot trigger disconnection on its own.

Treat the 60 days as a floor rather than a target. The notice and contact rules below usually stretch the real-world timeline past two months, and the hardship rules can block a shutoff entirely. But even if you do nothing after missing a payment, your water stays on for at least 60 days.

Notice the Utility Must Give You

Before any disconnection, the utility must contact the account holder at least seven business days in advance, either by phone or by written notice.¹ A phone call must include an offer to send you the written shutoff policy and a discussion of options to avoid disconnection, including payment plans, deferred payments, and bill review.

A written notice goes to the service address. When the billing address is different, a second copy goes to the service address labeled “Occupant.” The notice has to tell you:

Your name, address, and the exact amount you owe.
The date by which you must pay or set up an arrangement to avoid shutoff.
How to apply for an extension.
How to petition for a bill review and appeal.
How to request a deferred, reduced, or alternative payment schedule, including amortizing the unpaid balance.

If the utility can’t reach you by phone and the mailed notice comes back undeliverable, it must make a good-faith effort to visit your home and leave a notice of imminent shutoff in a visible spot, along with a copy of the disconnection policy.²

Payment Plans Anyone Can Request

You don’t have to prove financial hardship or a medical condition to get a payment arrangement. Every covered water system must offer deferred or reduced payments and alternative payment schedules to any customer who asks, regardless of income.³ The plan doesn’t have to reduce what you owe, but it lets you spread payments over time. The seven-business-day notice has to explain how to apply.

When a Shutoff Is Prohibited Entirely

A stronger set of protections stops a shutoff from happening at all when a customer meets all three of these conditions at the same time:⁴

A licensed primary care provider certifies that losing water would be life-threatening or a serious health and safety threat to someone living at the address. The customer or a tenant can submit this certification.
The customer shows they cannot pay within the utility’s normal billing cycle. You qualify automatically if any household member receives CalWORKs, CalFresh, general assistance, Medi-Cal, SSI/SSP, or WIC, or if your household income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
The customer is willing to enter an amortization agreement, alternative payment schedule, or a plan for deferred or reduced payment covering the delinquent charges.

When all three apply, the utility must offer at least one option: amortizing the unpaid balance, an alternative payment schedule, a partial or full reduction of what’s owed, or temporary deferral. The utility chooses which option and sets the terms. Repayment plans typically aim to clear the balance within 12 months, though the utility can extend that if a shorter timeline would cause undue hardship.

Income Limits for 2026

The financial hardship threshold is 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For 2026, that works out to:⁵

1 person: $31,920 per year
2 people: $43,280
3 people: $54,640
4 people: $66,000
5 people: $77,360

You can qualify by declaring income under these thresholds or by showing enrollment in one of the public assistance programs listed above. Benefit award letters, enrollment confirmations, or program participation records all work.

Disputing a Bill Freezes the Clock

If anyone at your residence appeals the water bill, whether to the utility or to another administrative or legal body, service cannot be shut off while that appeal is pending.¹ Every covered water system has to maintain a formal appeals mechanism and a phone number for discussing options.³ If you think your bill is wrong, filing a formal dispute is the fastest way to pause the shutoff process while things get sorted.

If You’re a Tenant and Your Landlord Holds the Account

Tenants face a real risk when the landlord is the water customer and falls behind. The law requires the utility, for properties with a landlord-tenant relationship where tenants have individual meters, to make a good-faith effort to notify tenants in writing before shutting off service for the landlord’s delinquency.⁶ That notice must tell tenants they can become customers of the water system in their own name and have service billed directly, without being required to pay the landlord’s delinquent balance. If you rent and suspect the water bill isn’t being paid, call the utility to ask about account status and your options.

Reconnection After a Shutoff

If your water has already been disconnected, the utility must tell you how to restore service.⁷ For customers who meet the financial hardship criteria, reconnection fees are capped at $50 during normal business hours and $150 for reconnections outside those hours. Once you pay the reconnection fee or sign a payment arrangement, the utility must begin restoring service.

Breaking a Hardship Payment Plan

The shutoff prohibition isn’t permanent. If you enter a payment arrangement under the medical and financial hardship protections and then stop complying, the utility can restart the disconnection process. Service can be ended if you fail to follow your payment agreement for 60 or more days, or if you fail to pay current charges while on the plan for 60 or more days.⁴ Even then, the utility must post a final notice of intent to disconnect at your property in a prominent, visible location, and service cannot be shut off until at least five business days after the posting.

Reporting a Violation

The State Water Resources Control Board enforces the act. The board can issue compliance orders and impose citations with penalties up to $1,000 per day for each day a violation continues, with each separate violation penalized independently.⁸ If you believe your utility disconnected you before 60 days of delinquency, failed to send proper notice, or refused a payment plan, keep copies of every bill, notice, and communication and contact the State Water Board’s Division of Drinking Water. The California Attorney General’s office has also issued legal alerts about the act and monitors compliance.

Don’t Reconnect the Water Yourself

Reconnecting your own service after a lawful shutoff, or tampering with the meter, is a criminal offense under California Penal Code section 498.⁹ It’s a misdemeanor, and if the value of the stolen services exceeds $950 or you have a prior conviction for the same offense, it can carry up to a year in county jail or state prison time. The payment-plan and reconnection routes under this law exist so self-help is never necessary.

1
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 116908
2
California Department of Justice. Legal Alert – The Water Shutoff Protection Act as Amended by SB 3
3
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 116906
4
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 116910
5
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines
6
State Water Resources Control Board. Water Shutoff Protection Act FAQs
7
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 116914
8
State Water Resources Control Board. California Safe Drinking Water Laws
9
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code PEN 498