What Happens If You Turn Your Water Back On Illegally?

Have you ever faced a situation where your water was shut off due to non-payment of bills? Being deprived of running water can be extremely disruptive to daily life. You may feel tempted to take matters into your own hands and turn the water back on illegally.

But what exactly happens if you tamper with the meter or valves to restore your water service without authorization? You could face financial penalties, criminal charges, and lasting damage to your relationship with your municipal water provider, along with ethical issues regarding water usage.

This article will cover:

• Understanding why your water may have been shut off
• Specific financial costs and fines for turning it back on illegally
• The possibility of criminal offenses and charges
• Long term impacts to your water service
• Risks and dangers to infrastructure
• Ethical considerations around water access
• Better options for getting your water turned back on
• Steps to prevent shut-offs in the future

First, let’s walk through why your water was likely turned off in the first place.

Understanding Why Your Water Was Turned Off

There are a few reasons why your water utility company may have made the decision to shut off water to your home or business. The most common include:

• Non-payment of water bills – If you fail to pay your water bill for an extended period, your provider can discontinue service. This serves as an incentive to keep accounts current.
• Planned repairs & maintenance – Occasionally shutdowns are required for nearby repairs or system upgrades. This is usually communicated in advance.
• Emergencies – Rare large leaks, contamination issues, or pipe bursts can require emergency shut offs. Safety comes first.

In most cases though, it comes down to overdue water bills. Let’s talk about why tampering with the meter is not the appropriate response.

Financial Penalties for Tampering with the Meter

While it’s frustrating to have your water turned off, illegally turning it back on has serious financial and legal consequences. Tampering with any water meter or valve without authorization is illegal.

Upon discovery, you’ll likely face fines from both your municipal water provider and possibly city authorities. Fines often start around $500 but the specific amount depends on your area’s laws and ordinances. Either way – it adds insult to injury when you were already struggling with bills.

Additional costs can include:

• Payment for all unauthorized water usage, often at a premium rate
• Repair or replacement of damaged meters or valves
• An investigation fee to send utility workers to verify tampering
• Disconnection and reconnection fees when properly shutting back off
• Possible legal fees if civil or criminal charges are pressed

These costs quickly spiral out of control into the thousands. It also defeats the purpose of turning water back on to avoid payments when you now owe exponentially more.

Possibility of Criminal Charges

In some rare cases, tampering with water infrastructure leads to criminal misdemeanor charges for “theft of utilities”.

If convicted, additional consequences may include:

• Jail time – While not overly common, judges can sentence offenders to up to one year in county jail for utility theft. Having a criminal record seriously hurts future job, housing, and other prospects.
• Formal probation – Courts may issue probation periods requiring check-ins, more fines, and behavioral conditions. Violating probation risks incarceration.
• Permanent record – Even if no jail time, a criminal misdemeanor conviction remains permanently on your record.

While unusual, thousands are charged criminally each year for utility theft nationally. The risks simply aren’t worth it.

Long Term Impacts to Your Water Service

Beyond immediate fines and criminal implications, tampering with meters causes long lasting harm to your relationship with your water provider.

Expect strict limits on reestablishing service after unauthorized usage, including:

• Requiring large security deposits before reconnection
• Only restoring service after all fines/fees are paid
• Mandating tamper-proof smart meters be installed
• Permanently terminating service as repeat offense

This strains your ability to easily restore water even when youSORT later get back on your feet financially. Full repairs also need occurring before reconnection.

Risks of Damaging Infrastructure

Illegal turn-ons often accidentally damage underground pipe infrastructure through amateur tampering. This causes issues like:

• Major leakage into soil requiring excavation
• Contaminants entering damaged pipes
• Burst mains causing sinkholes or property damage
• Complete lack of pressure/flow for entire neighborhoods

Attempting to restore your own water risks harming municipal water abilities in unpredictable ways. Avoid tampering without professional skills and oversight.

Ethical Considerations

The core ethic of public water utility providers is ensuring fair, affordable access to safe water for entire communities. Yet water scarcity still persists in many cities and rural areas.

By tampering with meters, we unfairly draw on shared water resources in excess of our bill allocation. Such actions contradict wider goals around responsible water usage and conservation.

There are always better solutions than illegally restoring your own water during shut-offs.

Better Options for Getting Water Restored

Instead of taking matters into your own hands, work in good faith with your water provider on a payment plan or assistance program. Most municipal providers offer options like:

• Flexible payment plans spreading repayment over months
• Reduced-rate programs for low income households
• Temporary restoration during heat waves or medical issues
• Forgiveness of late fees or overdue charges
• No-interest financing assistance

Contact your water company directly to learn the specific policies and procedures in your area for legally getting water flowing again despite overdue bills or shut-offs. The customer service number is printed directly on your monthly bill.

Be upfront about hardships in paying and determine if you qualify for any hardship exemptions or alternative solutions. The reality is they don’t want to keep water turned off any more than you want to go without it.

How to Prevent Shut-Offs

The best approach is being proactive before shut-offs ever happen by:

• Paying water bills early or on time every month
• Budgeting appropriately for seasonal fluctuation
• Reducing wasted water and fixing leaks quickly
• Informing providers immediately of payment issues
• Asking about billing errors if amounts seem unusual

Taking initiative and communicating early provides more time for resolution before service discontinuation. Monitor your usage and charges closely each cycle.

Establish notification and auto-pay arrangements if consistent on-time payment is an issue. Avoiding shut-offs in the first place saves enormous headaches down the line.

What Exactly Happens Legally If You Turn It Back On?

If discovered, tampering with water meters or infrastructure without consent from your municipal utility provider almost always results in:

• Financial penalties and fines starting around $500
• Payment for all unauthorized usage of water
• Fixing any damages caused in the process
• Possible misdemeanor charges for utility theft
• Strict limits and barriers to restoring normal water service

Rarely does illegally restoring your own water result in the saving money or avoiding consequences you hoped for. Instead work with your providers on repayment plans or reduced rates.

Conclusion

Having your water shut off due to failure to pay bills creates an extremely difficult situation. But tampering with water meters and illegally turning your service back on only compounds existing issues with financial penalties, criminal liability, damage to infrastructure, and ethical concerns over fair resource usage.

Always first contact your local water provider directly to discuss hardship assistance programs or alternative solutions to safely restoring your water service. Preventative steps like budgeting, monitoring your usage, fixing leaks quickly, and communicating early about payment problems will help avoid shut offs and the need to ever consider illegal tampering.