Nearly 1 in 4 Atlanta water and sewer accounts delinquent with $236 million in unpaid bills, audit finds

The City of Atlanta is owed more than $236 million in unpaid water and sewer bills from over 60,000 accounts, a new audit reveals.

According to the City Auditor's Office, the amount of delinquent accounts has increased by thousands over the last few years. That's despite Department of Watershed Management writing off amounts that they had deemed uncollectible.

The findings were presented at a recent Atlanta City Council Utilities Committee meeting and were a follow-up to an audit of the Department of Watershed Management's billing and collections done in 2023.

The audit found that the city's delinquent balance for water and sewer services has grown from $198 million in 2023 to $236 million as of April 2026. The number of delinquent accounts went from over 54,000 accounts to 60,168 accounts in the same time period.

"Almost a quarter of active accounts are delinquent, shifting the financial burden to customers who do pay," the City Auditor's Office wrote in their findings.

The agency also found that just a small number of delinquent accounts are on payment plans, with the majority of those not complying with the plans they agreed to.

Other entities that had large delinquent balances included the Fulton County Finance Department, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Georgia State University, and the Atlanta Board of Education.

The Department of Watershed Management wrote off nearly $62 million in water and sewer accounts since 2023, which the audit team noted was an improvement from the years prior. The auditors did note that more needs to be done to reduce the needs for write-offs in the future. The audit found that the department only terminated 737 accounts over 12 years for nonpayment and had fallen short on making its targets for water shutoffs quarterly.

While most of the delinquent accounts were defined as residential, some of the largest delinquent accounts were condominiums and apartment buildings. The audit also found that some commercial properties owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, including more than $2.6 million for the top commercial property. 

Members of the Atlanta City Council expressed their frustration and concerns over the result of the audit, with Atlanta City Councilman Dustin Hillis calling the numbers "wild."

"Go try to do that with Georgia Power. See how long your power stays on," he said.

Councilwoman Liliana Bakhtiari described its results "disappointing," saying the amount of money the city has lost by not properly collecting appeared to be "millions and millions and millions."

Both Hillis and Bakhtiari specifically highlighted the debt Fulton County owed the city for water and sewer, criticizing county officials for not paying while attempting to purchase the Atlanta City Detention Center for $68 million.

The Auditor's Office did not make any new recommendations, but reiterated the previous audit's suggestions. These included hiring staff to maintain or replace infrastructure or use contractors to handle any backlog of requests, design and implement a collection strategy that includes procedures for collections, service terminations and write-offs, and enforcing water service terminations.

Watershed Commissioner Greg Eyerly told the council that they have seen improved collection rates and have hired outside services to help. He also noted that there was legislation coming soon for additional write offs as well as an amnesty program, though he declined to give specific details.

Eyerly also pointed to the fact that the city did not shut off water or sewer services during the COVID-19 pandemic and in some years before, but he said they have been working to increase enforcement. 

"I think it is self-evident that the city does need to improve its collection efforts and be more disciplined in water shut-offs," he said, noting that the city had previously had a policy that was "very lenient toward collections and shutoffs." 

Eyerly said he believed around $150 million was uncollectible at this point in time because the accounts were more than 90 days overdue. He disagreed with some of the audit's findings, arguing that their numbers showed the amount of delinquent accounts had gone down.

Hillis told Eyerly that the situation had to be fixed quickly, describing the situation as "a laughingstock."

"We've got to do not a little bit better, but much much much much better about being serious about providing a service to people," he said.