§ 20-27 Billing and payment.
RCNY § 20-27
(a)An awardee must provide a consolidated bill, statement, or invoice at least once every month to every customer. Such bill, statement or invoice may be provided electronically, unless the customer requests a paper version. Such bill, statement or invoice must include all costs for services provided, including if an awardee uses one or more subcontractors to provide services to the customer. Such bill, statement, or invoice must conspicuously contain all of the following: (1) The awardee's name, address, telephone number, and Business Integrity Commission license number; (2) The customer's name and complete address; (3) The maximum rates the awardee is authorized to charge such customer pursuant to the awardee's agreement with the Department entered into pursuant to § 16-1002 of the Administrative Code with a statement indicating that the rates so identified are maximum legal rates and that lower rates may be lawfully charged; (4) The negotiated rate on which the bill, statement, or invoice is based, broken down into the component parts of such rate, including the rates based on frequency of collection of refuse, designated recyclable materials and source separated organic waste, if applicable, and the rates based on volume or weight of refuse, designated recyclable materials and source separated organic waste collected, if applicable; (5) A notice to customers as follows: "NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS – The maximum rates that may be charged by your commercial waste removal business are regulated by the New York City Department of Sanitation. If you should have a question or a complaint concerning commercial waste removal, contact the New York City Department of Sanitation"; (6) An itemized list of actual charges being imposed detailing: (i) The number of weekly pick-ups of each waste stream; (ii) The weight or volume of refuse, designated recyclable materials and source separated organic waste, if any, removed, and the charge for such weight or volume of such waste, broken down by waste stream, or, where the customer is being charged on a "flat" or "average" billing rate, the estimated volume or weight of refuse, designated recyclable materials and source separated organic waste, if any, removed, and the charge for such estimated weight or volume of such waste, broken down by waste stream, along with a statement as to the method by which the estimated volume or weight was determined, and the date the most recent waste survey was completed; (iii) Any additional charges or fees imposed; and (7) a separate statement of sales tax collected.
(b)Such bill, statement or invoice must be on a form approved by the Department. The Department may require an awardee to make changes to such form at any time, including after the Department has approved such form.
(c)If an awardee utilizes a “flat” billing method for a customer, whether based on weight or on volume, the awardee must provide a waste survey for such customer no later than 180 calendar days after the date of the first invoice that utilizes a “flat” billing method, provided that a waste survey conducted by the awardee no earlier than 1 year prior to entering into an agreement with a customer pursuant to 16 RCNY § 20-26 may fulfill the requirements of this subdivision. The waste survey may be conducted by the awardee or a trade waste broker or other third party. All future invoices must be based on the most recently completed waste survey, and any overpayments by a customer prior to the completion of the initial waste survey according to the results of the waste survey must be reimbursed by the awardee to the customer within 60 calendar days of the completion of the waste survey. Awardees are not required to provide reimbursements based on subsequent waste surveys following the initial waste survey and are not permitted to retroactively seek additional payments from customers based on the results of the waste survey. Prior to the start of a waste survey, an awardee must inform the customer in writing when the survey will be conducted, and of the customer’s right to participate in the survey by independently monitoring the waste collected during the survey period. The waste survey must: (1) measure the average amount of waste collected from a customer, either in volume or by weight, broken out by waste stream; (2) be conducted over a period of 30 calendar days, or four consecutive collections of each waste stream, whichever period is longer, unless a period of 30 calendar days would result in surveying each waste stream more than eight times. In that case, the waste survey will be conducted over calendar 30 days, on varying days of the week, during each week of the 30 calendar-day period, with the result that each waste stream is measured no more than eight times; (3) be provided at no cost to the customer; (4) be conducted according to a form prescribed by the Department; (5) be recorded and sent to the customer within 10 days after the waste survey is completed, and a copy must be retained by the awardee for five years.
(d)An awardee must perform an additional waste survey pursuant to this section if a customer requests an additional waste survey within 90 calendar days of such request, however, an awardee is not obligated to provide more than two waste surveys at no cost to the customer within any 12-month period.
(e)For purposes of a “flat” billing method: (1) if the total amount for a waste stream surveyed for a single billing period is under 1 cubic yard or 100 pounds, the measurement may be rounded up to 1 cubic yard or 100 pounds; (2) if the total amount for a waste stream surveyed for a single billing period is over 1 cubic yard or 100 pounds, and the total amount is 0.5 cubic yards or more beyond the last whole cubic yard or 50 pounds or more beyond the last whole 100-pound increment, an awardee may round up the total volume or weight to the next highest cubic yard or 100 pounds, respectively; (3) if an awardee rounds up the total volume or weight pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subdivision, such awardee must also round down the total amount for a waste stream to the next lowest cubic yard or 100-pound increment when the volume is less than 0.5 cubic yards beyond the last whole cubic yard or less than 50 pounds beyond the last whole 100-pound increment, respectively.
(f)If an awardee and a customer agree that the customer produces less than one cubic yard or less than 100 pounds per billing period of a given waste stream, the awardee is not required to conduct a waste survey of that waste stream; (g) An awardee must not submit a false or misleading waste survey to a customer or prospective customer.
(h)If an awardee plans to utilize a “flat” billing method based on weight, or charge customers based on the actual weight of a customer’s waste, the awardee must use weighing devices, whether owned, rented or borrowed by the awardee, that are accurate to within five percent. Such devices may display weight in five-, ten-, or twenty-pound increments, or other increments approved by the Department. Awardees who use the services of a person or entity to weigh a customer’s waste have the responsibility of insuring that the weighing devices used by such person or entity are accurate to within five percent. The weight of a customer’s waste shall be determined net of the weight of the can, container, dumpster or other rigid container in which it is placed by the customer.
(i)(1) An awardee may only accept cash payments from a customer for the collection, removal, or disposal of commercial waste: (i) At the awardee's primary office location or primary garage for storing commercial waste vehicles; or (ii) At a customer service location that has been approved by the Department.
(2)Under no circumstances may an awardee accept cash payments for such services at the customer's business location.
(3)An awardee must provide a receipt to the customer for all cash payments.
(4)An awardee may not charge a customer any additional fees or charges for processing or accepting non-cash payments for commercial waste collection, removal or disposal services, except as authorized pursuant to subparagraph (xiii) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of 16 RCNY § 20-21.
(j)An awardee may not charge new or existing customers for payments not collected from other customers.
(k)The awardee shall not assess new customers for payments owed from a previous customer. The awardee shall not charge existing customers in full or in part for payments owed from other customers. (Added City Record 11/16/2021, eff. 12/16/2021*; amended City Record 3/28/2025, eff. 4/27/2025; amended City Record 10/9/2025, eff. 11/8/2025) * Editor's note: For specific effective date provisions, see the editor's note at 16 RCNY Ch. 20.
