Objecting to the bill: service cannot be suspended while you claim

It is the law that gives you a procedure before your service is cut over a bill you do not recognise. What matters is one sentence: while the procedure is underway, they cannot suspend you. Everything else is deadlines worth writing down.

It covers subscribers or users of the entities the Act applies to. The text expressly names the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, “and other public service companies established or to be established in the future and their subsidiaries.” We reproduce that clause as it reads and do not say which other companies it reaches, because determining that would require reading statutes we did not read.

• Being a subscriber or user of an entity covered by the Act.Verified against the official source
• Objecting within the term counted from the bill’s sending, before the designated official at the local office where the serviced structure is located.Verified against the official source
• For the administrative hearing, paying beforehand an amount equal to the average of monthly or biweekly consumption billing over the preceding 12 months.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Object, and you may do it by phone or online

   The law opens the door wide. “From the sending of a collection bill… the subscriber shall have twenty (20) days to pay or to object and request an investigation before the designated official at the local office where the serviced structure is located, who is empowered to correct errors or overcharges. The objection and request for investigation may be filed by mail, telephone, fax, internet and mobile applications, provided it is submitted through the specific addresses and/or numbers provided” by the entity for those purposes.

2. 2

   Step 2: While you claim, they cannot cut you off

   This is the sentence to know by heart, and it is short: “At no time while these administrative procedures are underway may the authority, government instrumentality, public corporation, and/or participatory public-private partnership suspend the service.”

3. 3

   Step 3: Thirty days to investigate and answer you in writing

   The clock runs for the entity, not for you. “The authority, government instrumentality, public corporation, and/or participatory public-private partnership must conclude the investigation and report the result to the subscriber within thirty (30) days of the original objection. The investigation’s result shall be notified to the subscriber in writing, who, if the result is adverse, shall have ten (10) days from notice to pay the bill or to request reconsideration of that decision and an administrative hearing before the concerned authority’s regional executive director.”

4. 4

   Step 4: The hearing has a prior payment, and this is how it is computed

   Worth knowing before requesting it. If you request reconsideration and a hearing, you “must pay, before the hearing is held, an amount equal to the average of monthly or biweekly consumption billing, as the case may be, based on the subscriber’s consumption history over the preceding 12 months.” And if you have less than twelve months of service, “the time during which the service was used shall be considered for the billing average.”

5. 5

   Step 5: The examiner may not be an employee of the entity

   An impartiality guarantee the law writes expressly. The entity “may designate an attorney duly admitted to the legal profession in Puerto Rico, but who is not its employee, to act as examiner or arbitrator and resolve the subscriber’s claims, within thirty (30) days of the date the case was submitted. That term is of strict compliance, extendable up to a maximum of 15 additional days only for just cause.”

6. 6

   Step 6: If you lose: twenty days and a payment plan

   The law does not leave you facing the whole debt at once. “If the examiner or arbitrator rules against the subscriber and confirms the bill is due, the subscriber must pay the debt balance within twenty (20) days from notice of the decision. The authority… shall establish a debt payment plan that shall not exceed 50% of the total debt. If the subscriber fails to pay, the authority… may suspend, disconnect and cancel the service.”

7. 7

   Step 7: If you win: refunded with 10% annual interest

   It is written too, and it is concrete: “If the result of the administrative hearing or judicial review is favourable to the subscriber, the concerned authority shall refund or credit any amount overpaid plus interest at ten percent (10%) annually.”

8. 8

   Step 8: Whoever misses a deadline, loses

   The law’s most powerful provision, and almost nobody knows it. Along with the entity’s duty to provide you a digital, telephone or postal link reporting your objection’s updated status at each step, the law closes thus: “If either party fails to comply with any of the terms provided by this Act, the controversy shall be resolved in favour of the party in compliance.” That is why documenting the date of every step matters.

9. 9

   Step 9: They never cut you off on a Friday or before a holiday

   If you do not pay and do not use or exhaust the procedure, the authority may suspend you. But even there rules apply: “The suspension shall take effect on a date after the term of twenty (20) days from the sending of the suspension notice and shall never occur on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or holiday, nor on the working day before the latter.”

10. 10

    Step 10: They must explain it when you sign the contract

    A duty at the outset, not at the claim. “When the subscriber perfects the service contract with the instrumentality, it shall inform them in writing of the procedure established in compliance with this Act,” warning of each stage of the process and the terms for each, and the rights, powers and obligations covering each party.

The objection is filed before the designated official at the local office where the serviced structure is located, and may be made by mail, telephone, fax, internet or mobile apps, using the addresses and numbers the entity provides for that. Reconsideration and the hearing go before the regional executive director. And against the examiner’s or arbitrator’s decision there are twenty (20) days to seek review at the Court of Appeals under Act 201-2003; the court reviews on the administrative record and only as to conclusions of law, because findings of fact are conclusive for it if supported by substantial evidence. If your matter is activating water service or understanding the AAA bill, those have their own guides.

• Letting the term lapse without objecting: if you do not pay and do not use the procedure, the entity may suspend you.
• Believing you must go in person: the objection is valid by mail, telephone, fax, internet or mobile apps.
• Accepting a cut-off while the procedure is underway: the law expressly prohibits it.
• Requesting the hearing without budgeting the prior payment of the preceding 12 months’ average.
• Not documenting dates: whoever misses a deadline loses the controversy.
• Paying the whole debt believing there is no alternative: the entity must establish a payment plan not exceeding 50% of the total.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA)

  AAA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov