Commercial properties added to Rocky Top’s leak-insurance program
Owners of commercial properties served by Rocky Top utilities will be allowed to purchase the same kind of water- and sewer-line breakage and leak insurance that was provided beginning Feb. 1 to residential customers, the City Council agreed last Thursday evening (Feb. 20).
Fees for commercial leak insurance will be $6.50 each for water and sewer for smaller properties, including restaurants, for a total of $13 a month.
Larger properties – which includes hotels – will pay $13 each for water and sewer leak coverage, for a total of $26 a month added to their utility bills.
As with residential customers, the leak insurance will be added automatically unless the customer goes to City Hall and opts out of the program.
Beginning this month, residential utility customers began paying a monthly fee of $2.35 for water leak coverage, and an additional $2.35 for sewer coverage, unless they had chosen to opt out.
Opting out of the insurance means that utility customers will no longer be allowed to have leak adjustments made to their bills by the City Council, as they have been in the past.
City Manager Mike Ellis contacted the insurance carrier at the council’s request after the residential coverage was given final approval by the council in January, after he told them only residential customers were included in the original plan.
Ellis said at the time that he didn’t know whether the coverage was even available for commercial utility customers.
After checking with the carrier, he brought the commercial coverage plan to the council for approval Thursday.
For residential customers, the insurance will pay up to two claims a year – for a total of $2,500 – per customer for high water and sewer bills caused by leaks.
Still to be worked out is how the city will handle giving customers sewer adjustments for filling swimming pools.
The way billing operates, sewer bills are calculated by how much water customers use, with the theory being that most water goes down the drain into the sewer.
