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Army Veteran Owned | Expert Surety Bonds Since 2004
The amount is not one figure. Fort Worth sets the deposit by meter size and customer class, from $50 for a single family home up to $11,000 for an eight inch commercial meter, and several larger sizes are still published as TBD. Two things decide whether a bond is worth doing. Residential deposits are small and can be waived outright with twelve clean months of utility history. Commercial deposits cannot be waived at all, and the City does not refund them while the account is open. That is where a guarantee bond stops thousands of dollars sitting with the water department indefinitely.
Fort Worth City Code section 35-61 requires a security deposit from water customers unless they are exempt, and it permits four forms of security. One of them is a guarantee bond in a form and from a surety company acceptable to the director of the water department. The other three are cash, a letter of credit drawn on a state or federally chartered lending institution located in Tarrant County, and assignment to the City of a certificate of deposit at such an institution. The code leaves the amount to the director, and the City publishes it as a table keyed to meter size and customer class, starting at $50 for a single family residence and $100 for a duplex. Section 35-61(g) excludes governmental entities and wholesale service contracts from the section entirely.
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The old version of this page said the amount is typically based on anticipated water usage. That is close enough to sound right and vague enough to be useless. The actual figure comes off a published schedule keyed to two things: the size of your meter and which customer class you fall into.
Residential is simple. A single family residence is $50 and a duplex is $100.
Everything else runs off the meter size table. For a three quarter inch meter the deposit is $100 commercial, $150 industrial, $170 multi-family commercial and $90 irrigation. At one inch every class is $200. At one and a half inch it is $300 commercial, $400 industrial, $600 multi-family commercial and $200 irrigation. At two inch, $800 commercial, $1,500 industrial, $1,300 multi-family commercial and $800 irrigation. At three inch, $1,500 commercial, $4,000 industrial and $1,400 multi-family commercial, with irrigation published as TBD. At four inch, $3,000 commercial, $6,500 industrial and $4,500 multi-family commercial. At six inch, $9,500 commercial and $7,200 industrial. At eight inch, $11,000 commercial. Ten inch is TBD across the board.
Those TBD entries are not a formatting error. For the larger meters the City sets the figure case by case, which means a call to Water Applications at 817-392-8250 before you assume anything.
Notice that industrial is not always higher than commercial. At six inch the commercial figure is larger. Do not estimate by analogy, read the row.
Section 35-61(a) lists them. Cash. A guarantee bond in a form and from a surety company acceptable to the director of the water department. A letter of credit drawn on a state or federally chartered lending institution located in Tarrant County, Texas. Or assignment to the City of Fort Worth of a certificate of deposit at such an institution.
The code names no form number and prescribes no wording. What it says is that the bond has to be in a form and from a surety acceptable to the director. That makes the water department the gatekeeper on the paper itself, so confirm acceptance of the form before you pay a premium rather than after.
There is a trap in the letter of credit option worth knowing even if you do not use it. If the letter of credit is not renewed at least 15 days prior to the date of expiration, the City may draw on it, and the funds received become a cash deposit. Your alternative to a cash deposit quietly turns into a cash deposit.
At $50 for a house and $100 for a duplex, the premium on a bond is not a sensible trade against the deposit itself.
And the City waives the residential deposit outright in two situations. If the customer has had at least twelve consecutive months of utility service with the City of Fort Worth within the previous twelve month period without any late payments. Or if the applicant provides a letter of credit reference from another utility, such as electric, landline phone or water, showing at least twelve consecutive months of service within the previous twelve month period.
That second one is the option people miss. Moving from another city does not automatically cost you a deposit. Your old utility's reference letter can do the work.
A residential deposit may also be refunded after one year on a good payment history, and the City reviews payment histories annually to decide.
Commercial account deposits vary and cannot be waived. There is no clean history exemption on the commercial side, and no letter of reference route.
Worse for cash flow, commercial account deposits can only be refunded at account termination. They are not eligible to be refunded while the account is still active. So a business with a four inch commercial meter is looking at $3,000 sitting with the water department for the entire life of the account, and a six inch is $9,500.
That is the arithmetic that makes a guarantee bond worth pricing. You are not saving on a $50 house deposit. You are deciding whether five figures of working capital stays in your business.
Section 35-61(g) excludes governmental entities and wholesale service contracts from the section. Not an exemption you apply for, an exclusion from the rule.
Section 35-61(e) exempts a person with a satisfactory credit history with the water department as determined by the director or his or her duly authorized representative. The code does not define what counts, which is a genuine gap and means the answer comes from the department rather than from the text.
Section 35-61(d) lets single family residential customers in cases of extreme hardship pay cash deposits in installments. That is a payment plan on the deposit rather than a waiver of it.
Section 35-61(f) is short and easy to miss. If a customer establishes an account without a security deposit, but subsequently loses his or her satisfactory credit history with the department, a security deposit may be required as a condition for continued service.
The City puts it more bluntly on its own account pages: deposit amounts may be increased at any time because of poor payment history. So the deposit can appear on an established account, and it can grow.
Under 35-61(c), failing to make a required deposit is grounds to refuse or discontinue service.
Section 35-64 requires the director to keep accurate records of all security deposits, including the depositor's name, amounts deposited and deposits refunded, and to keep separate accounts of all security deposits. It also requires the director to apply the deposit to the final bill when an account closes or goes inactive, to permit deposits to be transferred between addresses, and to return any unused portion when service ends.
The transfer point is useful. Moving within Fort Worth does not necessarily mean starting over.
Section 35-65 governs refunds, and it applies only to a single family residence or duplex, including a yard meter serving such a property. Four conditions have to be met together. Twelve continuous months of service. A satisfactory credit history with the water department. No checks returned for insufficient funds during the past twelve months. No outstanding delinquent bills. Even then the director may refuse a refund where the circumstances of the account present a substantial risk of financial loss to the department. Refunds are normally credited to the bill rather than paid out, with a check issued only in special circumstances approved by the director.
Section 35-61 traces back to 1964 Code section 37-30 and has been amended by Ordinance 9937, passed 8-25-1987, Ordinance 11922, passed 4-18-1995, and Ordinance 23990-12-2019, passed 12-17-2019 with an effective date of 4-1-2020. Anything written about Fort Worth water deposits before spring 2020 should be checked against the current text.
No. It is a published schedule keyed to meter size and customer class. A single family residence is $50 and a duplex is $100. On the commercial column it runs from $100 at a three quarter inch meter to $11,000 at eight inch. Industrial, multi-family commercial and irrigation each have their own column, and several of the larger sizes are published as TBD, meaning the department sets them case by case.
Yes. Section 35-61(a) lists four permitted forms of security and a guarantee bond is the second of them. The exact wording is a guarantee bond in a form and from a surety company acceptable to the director of the water department. The other three options are cash, a Tarrant County letter of credit, and assignment of a certificate of deposit at a Tarrant County institution.
The code does not name one. It says the bond must be in a form and from a surety company acceptable to the director of the water department, which puts approval of the paper with the department rather than in the ordinance. Get their requirements confirmed before you pay a premium.
Probably not. At $50 for a house and $100 for a duplex there is very little to save, and the City waives the residential deposit outright if you have had twelve consecutive months of Fort Worth utility service without any late payments, or if you provide a letter of credit reference from another utility showing twelve consecutive months of service. Ask about the waiver before anything else.
No. The City states that commercial account deposits vary and cannot be waived. There is no clean history route and no reference letter route on the commercial side. That is why a guarantee bond gets considered here and rarely on residential accounts.
Only when the account closes. Commercial account deposits can only be refunded at account termination and are not eligible to be refunded while the account is still active. For a six inch commercial meter that is $9,500 tied up for as long as the account exists, which is the number worth weighing a bond premium against.
Section 35-65 covers it, and it applies only to a single family residence or duplex, including a yard meter serving such a property. Four conditions have to be met together. Twelve continuous months of service, a satisfactory credit history with the water department, no checks returned for insufficient funds in the past twelve months, and no outstanding delinquent bills. The director may still refuse where the account presents a substantial risk of financial loss. Refunds are usually credited to your bill rather than mailed.
Yes. Section 35-61(g) excludes governmental entities and wholesale service contracts from the section. Separately, 35-61(e) exempts a person with a satisfactory credit history with the water department as determined by the director. The code does not define satisfactory credit history, so that determination comes from the department.
Yes. Section 35-61(f) provides that if a customer establishes an account without a security deposit but subsequently loses satisfactory credit history with the department, a deposit may be required as a condition for continued service. The City also states that deposit amounts may be increased at any time because of poor payment history.
Section 35-61(d) allows single family residential customers in cases of extreme hardship to make cash deposits in installments. That is a payment arrangement rather than a waiver, and it is limited to single family residential.
It is a valid option but it carries a trap. Section 35-61(a)(3) provides that if the letter of credit is not renewed at least 15 days prior to expiration, the City may draw on it and the funds received become a cash deposit. Miss the renewal window and the arrangement you set up to avoid a cash deposit becomes one.
There is no published rate, because this is underwritten rather than tariffed. The inputs are the deposit amount being replaced, the owner's personal credit, and how long the business has operated. At small residential figures a bond makes no economic sense. At the four and six inch commercial tiers the calculation changes, because you are comparing an annual premium against thousands of dollars held until the account closes. Any percentage published before an underwriter sees your file is a guess. Get your actual number.
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