Your water bill

Customers who experience a severe plumbing failure inside their homes can apply for one-time assistance for the water and wastewater charges on their bill. This program is a one-time grant and any future charges shall be paid for in full by the customer. This program does not cover costs associated with repairs, replacement or any other costs associated with the failure. Only the volumetric charges on the Water Utilities Bill during the period of the failure are eligible. Water and wastewater charges incurred as a result of irrigation, filling pools or hot tubs, car washing and/or other outdoor or discretionary water uses are not eligible for assistance.

The application and all required documentation must be submitted within two months of detecting the issue and completion of repair.

Please email all of your documentation to leakallowance@london.ca to assist Water Engineering staff with reviewing and processing Leak Allowance Applications. Staff are currently still able to receive hardcopies by mail, but there may be a slight delay of receipt. Should you have challenges submitting your application or accompanying documentation please provide an explanation in the email and your circumstances will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Customers pay for water charges based on their usage or volume consumed each month and a capital renewal charge (water connection charge).  All residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial customers will pay a fixed monthly charge based on the size of their water meter and then a volumetric charge based on the amount of water used each month. This blending of fixed and usage charges is intended to continue to promote conservation by continuing to give the customer control of their bills by reducing their monthly usage. Most residential homes will have a 16mm water meter.

Monthly water connection charge

Water connection charge is calculated using meter size.

Monthly water usage charges: dollars per m³

Customers pay for wastewater charges based on their usage or volume consumed each month and a capital renewal charge (wastewater connection charge).  All residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial customers will pay a fixed monthly charge based on the size of their water meter and then a volumetric charge based on the amount of water used each month. This blending of fixed and usage charges is intended to continue to promote conservation by continuing to give the customer control of their bills by reducing their monthly usage.

Monthly wastewater connection charge 

Wastewater connection charge is calculated based on meter size.

Monthly wastewater usage charge (consumption): dollars per m³

All City of London water customers pay an infrastructure connection charge on their monthly utility bill. This charge is a combination of charges based on the size of the water meter servicing the property, the property’s total area, and also the property’s zoning designation. Below is an example of how the Infrastructure Connection Charge is calculated for a single family home that has a 16mm water meter.

The property’s total square meter area (hectares) will determine the monthly charges for Stormwater. The fees that each customer pays goes toward the construction, maintenance and operations of the storm sewers, ditches, watercourses, retention ponds, roadways, etc.

Fire protection charge

All of the watermains have been designed and constructed to deliver high quality water to homes and businesses, and the fire hydrants that protect them. This sophisticated water distribution system that London manages actually lowers homeowner’s insurance rates for the whole City.

Each year City Water crews visit every hydrant three times to conduct routine frost checks in the winter and maintenance as needed.

The charges are broken out into three rates based on the class of customer.

Customer assistance charge

The City has a 25-cent fixed fee that is applied to each monthly bill for all single family residential water customers in London. These funds are collected over the year and applied to the customer assistance program, if the money from these funds has been used-up at any point in the calendar year, then the program will be suspended until January 1st of the following year when the funds are topped up again.

The charge will contribute to a special reserve fund and will be drawn against for:

• Helping low-income Londoners deal with crisis situations on their monthly water bills using existing programs managed and delivered through partnerships with London Hydro, the Salvation Army, and the City. An annual fund of $100,000 will be kept and topped up each year to help those in need;
• Helping low-income Londoners make changes to the fixtures in their homes to help lower  their monthly water use. On average 40% of home water use is from the toilet; and
• Helping London’s water customers pay for water and wastewater charges one time that have occurred as a result of a plumbing failure in their homes.

Every developed parcel in the City of London with a municipal water service pays a stormwater charge on their London Hydro water utility bill. Properties that are greater than 0.4 hectares in size pay a per hectare charge. These properties may be eligible for a stormwater charge reduction on their water utility bill. In accordance with Municipal By-law WM-28 (Section 3.4.2), the City of London has a reduction program for stormwater rates of up to 50% for Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) properties over 0.4 hectares.  

Industrial, commercial and institutional water utility customers with a property size greater than 0.4 hectares may apply for a water billing stormwater charge reduction.  To receive a reduction, submission of a Stormwater Rate Reduction Application is required along with required supporting documents such as but not limited to a storm drainage report,  prepared and stamped by a professional engineer, that shows the subject site has stormwater management practices that go above and beyond established stormwater requirements and warrants a rate reduction.  This will be reviewed and accepted by the City and to the satisfaction of the City Engineer. 

Generally, the intent of the Stormwater Rate Reduction Program is to recognize ICI properties which are discharging a lower volume of runoff to the municipal system due to increased pervious areas or through construction of green infrastructure with an infiltration function. The following cases may be eligible for the Stormwater Credit:

• Case 1: Pervious Surface Credit: where the Owner can demonstrate that the runoff coefficient (C-value) of the property is less than the City Design & Specification Standard for the Land Use/Zoning. Please note that the lower runoff coefficient will become permanent upon acceptance of the credit. Therefore, any future development of the site will be expected to implement green infrastructure or other stormwater management measures to manage additional volumes and maintain the revised coefficient.
• Case 2: Green Infrastructure – Infiltration System: where source controls are constructed by the Owner to reduce the total volume of runoff from the site, such as rain gardens or bioswales with the ability to infiltrate.  The credit may relate to the surface area of the pervious feature(s) and/or the volume infiltrated into the soils (depending on soil conditions).

The volume captured by the feature(s) should be identified as a percentage reduced from the original or post-development runoff. 

Other stormwater practices are not considered as being part of the reduction such as parking lot or rooftop storage, dry/wet ponds, or oil grit separators.  The reduction will only be applied if there is a demonstrated reduction in runoff volume to the municipal system.  

Customers who are interested in a stormwater reduction at the early planning stages are encouraged to submit a request as part of the Site Plan Application process.

How to apply

Please fill out the and submit the Stormwater Rate Reduction Application and send to stormwater@london.ca, or mail a copy of the application to: Stormwater Rate Reduction Program | 9th floor City Hall, 300 Dufferin Ave. | PO Box 5035 | London, ON | N6A 4L9

City Staff from Stormwater Engineering Division will contact the applicant upon review of the application. If a reduction is approved, the rate will be retroactive from the application submission date and be granted for five years, provided no changes or further development occur on the site during this time. Any alterations to the site after the reduction approval date will require reapplication to the Stormwater Rate Reduction Program.

For industrial customers that use more than 15% of the water measured by the water meter in their consumptive use, there is an opportunity to have the wastewater volume metered. The WM-28  By-law Part Four outlines the rules associated with this program.

The customer is required to divert all flows leaving the site to a single effluent meter. In the rebate program the customer purchases, installs, calibrates, and maintains the effluent meter on their sanitary connection into the City’s sewer. After the City has approved the meter installation, the customer receives a rebate based on the difference between the volume consumed and the volume discharged.

Customers should review the by-law and contact the City to determine the effluent meter type required to facilitate automatic meter reading. There could be additional electrical, process, or automation work required by the customer to develop the initial set-up which is at no cost to the City.

Please call the City's Water Engineering Division at 519-661-2489 ext. 5081 if you wish to participate in this program. Please include your approximate water use, billing number, and expected difference between the measured water use and effluent volume.

Customers that have installed a dedicated irrigation meter may be eligible for an exemption of their wastewater usage charge on their water bill. Wastewater exemptions for dedicated irrigation meters are determined on a case-by-case basis.

Irrigation meter customers are required to pay the water connection charges and water usage charges, along with fire protection charges, stormwater charges, and the customer assistance programs charges (if applicable).

Customers that wish to be part of this program should be aware that there is a cost to have their irrigation meter removed at the end of the season, along with a cost to have the meter installed the following season. 

For inquiries regarding a wastewater usage exemption for irrigation meters, please email water@london.ca or call 519-661-2489 x 5081

For customers that have multiple meters installed at their facility, of which at least one is a 100mm water meter (or larger), they can request to have their water consumption aggregated before applying the volumetric rates. The meters must be located close to each other and cannot be for two facility properties that are not side by side. The customer is eligible for the program starting in the following billing period after the request is made and accepted by the City.

The class or type of user is not important, only the size and number of water meters that service the customer along with their proximity to each other. As an example, chain restaurants that have multiple locations would not be eligible for this benefit but a large industrial user with multiple meters at one facility with multiple buildings would.

Please call the City's Water Engineering Division at 519-661-2489 ext. 5081 if you wish to participate in this program.

The City of London standards allow for one metered water service per single family building.  If the building is converted to a multi-family rental it is permitted for each residential unit to have its own metered water service.  This means that each residential unit will be billed separately by the City for water consumed each month.

There a several requirements that must be met before a new customer account can be created:

• The building must be supplied by a water service pipe from the municipal watermain in the street to the property line that is adequately sized for the intended use of the building.  The City of London minimum water service pipe sizing is 25mm PEX.
• Each residential unit must have a separate hot and cold water supply that can be isolated by a main valve and not interfere with the water supply of the other units.
• The City of London allows one water service pipe from the municipal watermain to the property line with a shut off valve located 300mm from the property line on the City right-of-way.  Once the water service pipe crosses the property line it can be branched off in to two separate water services, one for each new customer.  Each branch is to have a shut off valve located at 300mm from the property line on private property.  A meter pit will have to be installed for each unit which will house the City of London water meter.  From this point the water service pipes will enter the building and be connected to the building plumbing system.
• All permits, materials and construction are the property owner responsibility.  The City of London will install the water meters in the pits once all work has been inspected and approved.

A licensed plumber can assist you with this work.