How to Fill Out and Submit the NYC DEP Customer Dispute Form

To challenge a New York City water or sewer bill you believe is wrong, file the NYC DEP Customer Dispute Form with the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Customer Services within four years of the bill date.¹ You can submit it online through a My DEP Account at nyc.gov/mydep or mail the paper form to BCS in Elmhurst. DEP makes best efforts to issue a written decision within 90 days, and if it rules against you, two levels of administrative appeal remain before court.

What You Need Before You File

Pull your 13-digit DEP account number off the top of any water and sewer bill.² Without it, BCS cannot match your complaint to the right property record. Have the service address, the Borough-Block-Lot (BBL) number if you know it, and the billing period you want to dispute.

Decide which category your dispute falls under before you start writing. DEP recognizes high bills from suspected leaks or overconsumption, inaccurate estimated bills, incorrect interest charges, remittance or refund problems, denial of a program application, and other billing errors.³ The category tells you what evidence to gather.

For a high bill, take a current reading directly off your water meter and compare it to the consumption figure on the bill. That comparison is the backbone of the case. If a leak caused the spike, collect the plumber’s receipt showing the repair date. If you think the meter is broken, note any damage or irregular behavior in your written statement. For an estimated-bill dispute, gather recent actual-read bills so BCS can measure the estimate against real consumption. For interest-charge disputes, document when you paid and how much.

Filling Out the Form

The form runs one page, but every field counts. At the top, enter your account number, name, mailing address, phone numbers, and email. If someone else is filing for you or will attend a review meeting on your behalf, that person’s details go in the authorized-representative section, and a notarized Letter of Authorization has to come with the form.³

Mark the property type (residential, commercial, industrial, vacant land, mixed use, or other). Check “Complaint” if this is your first filing on the issue. “Initial Appeal” is only for cases where BCS has already answered a prior complaint and you disagree.

The written statement is the part that decides your case. Keep it specific. Instead of “my bill is too high,” write something like: “My meter read 4,520 on March 15, but the bill shows consumption of 8,200 for the same period.” Attach your supporting documents (meter photos, plumber receipts, payment records) and reference each one in the statement.

At the bottom, you sign a certification that the information is true. A willful false statement carries penalties under the Penal Law, so get the numbers right.³

How to Submit It

Online is faster. File through your My DEP Account at nyc.gov/mydep, which gives you digital tracking and immediate confirmation.⁴ If you do not have an account, you can create one on the DEP website with your account number.

For paper filing, mail the completed form and documents to:

DEP/BCS Customer Service
P.O. Box 739055
Elmhurst, NY 11373-9055³

Questions before you file can go to DEP Customer Service at 718-595-7000.⁵

What Happens After You File

DEP assigns a case number. Keep it. You will need it for every follow-up call, email, or appeal. BCS makes best efforts to issue a written decision within 90 days of receiving the complaint.¹ The review may include an onsite inspection, remote meter diagnostics, or a request for more documentation from you.

Here is what catches people off guard. Filing a dispute does not pause interest on your unpaid balance. Interest keeps accruing until the charges are paid in full.¹ Win the dispute and DEP removes the interest tied to the disputed charge. Lose it and you owe the original amount plus interest from the original due date. For properties with billable assessed values above $450,000 (or cooperative apartments valued above $450,000 per unit), the annualized rate is 16%.⁶ Other property classes carry different rates, so check your bill. Many owners pay under protest and collect a refund if they win, rather than let interest pile up.

One hard cutoff: the dispute process is available to you only until a lien arising from the unpaid bill has been sold by the city. Once a lien sale happens, BCS can no longer adjust the charges, so do not assume the full four-year window is always open.

Leak Forgiveness as an Alternative

If a leak caused the high bill, DEP’s Leak Forgiveness Program may be a better route than, or an addition to, the dispute form. The program cuts the high-bill amount in half, though the final charge will not drop below 150% of your property’s typical bill.⁷ It is a separate track with its own rules.

The property has to be billed on metered charges (not a flat rate), and all four of these conditions must be met:

The leak generated a bill at least 200% of a normal bill from a representative billing period.
The leak was fixed within 120 days of the original high-charge bill date.
You submit the forgiveness request within 120 days of that same bill date, by mail or through My DEP Account.
You have not received leak forgiveness in the past two years.⁷

All leaks qualify, including toilets, sinks, and showers. With a working automated meter reading (AMR) device on the property, no proof of repair is required. Without one, you need a plumber’s receipt. If a licensed plumber certifies that the leak could not reasonably have been discovered within the 120-day window, the repair deadline extends by another 180 days.⁷

If DEP Denies Your Dispute

You have 120 days from the date of DEP’s written response to file a first-level appeal with the Deputy Commissioner of BCS. The appeal has to identify the property by street address and account number, specify the charges in dispute, and explain why the BCS decision was wrong. Submit it by mail to 59-17 Junction Blvd., 13th Floor, Flushing, NY 11373-5108, or by email to customerservice@dep.nyc.gov.⁸ If you email, the time and date stamp when DEP receives it is the official record; emails sent to other DEP addresses will not count. Need more time? Petition for an extension before the 120-day deadline; DEP will grant one for reasonable cause.

The Deputy Commissioner makes best efforts to decide within 90 days of receiving the appeal.⁸ If that decision also goes against you, the final administrative step is a written appeal to the Executive Director of the New York City Water Board within 60 days.⁴ The Water Board’s decision ends the administrative road.

After all three levels (BCS complaint, Deputy Commissioner appeal, Water Board appeal), you can challenge the final determination in New York State Supreme Court through an Article 78 proceeding, filed within four months of the date the determination becomes binding. The court reviews whether DEP’s decision was arbitrary and capricious, affected by an error of law, or unsupported by substantial evidence. Skip a step in the administrative process and the court will likely dismiss the petition for failure to exhaust remedies.

1
NYC Department of Environmental Protection. Customer Dispute Resolution Process
2
NYC Environmental Protection. NYC DEP Water Benchmarking Instructions
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NYC Department of Environmental Protection. Customer Dispute Form
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NYC311. Water and Sewer Bill Dispute
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NYC Environmental Protection. Contact – DEP
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NYC Environmental Protection. How We Bill You
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NYC Environmental Protection. Leak Forgiveness Program
8
American Legal Publishing. Section 2 – Complaint Resolution and Appeal Process