Water arrears
unpaid DEP water and sewer charges
Water arrears are unpaid water and sewer charges owed to the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. The charges attach to the property rather than the person, so they follow the building. In practice they are one of the earliest payment obligations a struggling owner lets slip.
What it means in NYC
Water bills sit low in an owner's payment stack: skipping one does not trigger a default notice the way a missed mortgage payment does. That is what makes arrears an early rung on the distress ladder. Owners tend to fall behind on DEP charges before the visible trouble like liens, foreclosures, or court filings shows up.
The city has real leverage here too. Sustained water and sewer arrears can make a property eligible for New York City's tax lien sale, which turns quiet nonpayment into a public, enforceable claim.
How DeedGraph uses it
Water arrears are one rung of the municipal-debt ladder DeedGraph studies. The product today totals unpaid OATH/ECB judgments per building; arrears data adds context on how early an owner's payment strain started.
Common questions
- Are water arrears public record?
- Pieces of the picture are. The city's tax lien sale list, which includes properties with qualifying water and sewer debt, is published each year. There is no single clean public feed of every unpaid DEP balance.