Start or Stop Water Service — Palm Bay, Florida

Every residential start, stop or transfer in Palm Bay goes through one form, the Residential Application for Service posted by Palm Bay Utilities (Start / Stop / Transfer Service).

That single Palm Bay application has four uses: Stop/Start Service, Transfer Service, Temporarily Suspend Service and Request Additional Carts for trash and recycling. Businesses use a separate Commercial Application for Service that covers stopping, starting and transferring. Contractors who need water from a hydrant during construction file a Hydrant Meter Request Form to install, relocate or terminate a hydrant meter, and an owner who wants a first connection to the city system files a Water and Sewer Availability Request. Palm Bay customers who pay by bank draft and are closing out or changing an account will find a separate Termination of Automatic Bank Draft form on the same page.

The Palm Bay form page carries an unusual browser note: the city recommends Internet Explorer for submitting the forms online, and anyone on another browser downloads the form and sends the completed document as an email attachment to ucs@palmbayfl.gov. The city's Customer Service page lists Start/Stop Service among the Utilities Customer Service tasks handled at 120 Malabar Road (Customer Service).

Questions that a form cannot settle go to Utilities Customer Care in the City Hall Annex Building, 120 Malabar Road SE, at (321) 952-3420, or by email to ucs@palmbayfl.gov. The counter there opens at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays and at 8:00 a.m. on other weekdays (Contact Utilities Customer Care). New arrivals can work from the city's New Resident Information page, which lists Solid Waste and Recycling and Water and Sewer as the utility services the City of Palm Bay itself provides and recommends signing up for AlertBrevard emergency notifications (New Resident Information).

Palm Bay sets the water and wastewater deposits by meter size, starting at $100.00 each for a 3/4 inch or 1 inch meter, with a separate $30 solid waste deposit (Residential Rates and Charges).

A typical Palm Bay house on a 3/4 inch meter with city water, sewer and trash therefore starts with $230 in deposits ($100 + $100 + $30), arithmetic from the city's published amounts. Under the City Ordinance cited on the Palm Bay rates page, the deposit requirement can be met either by paying the deposits or by requesting a credit screening for a $5 fee, and qualifying customers may receive a deposit waiver or reduction. The city also reserves the right to require a cash deposit before service begins.

Credit screening in Palm Bay is limited. It is offered only to individuals, never for business accounts, and it requires the last four digits, and only those, of the applicant's Social Security Number (City of Palm Bay).

Once the account is open, the first Palm Bay bill combines fixed and metered charges. For the rate year that began October 1, 2026, an inside-city home pays $4.20 per 1,000 gallons for the first 5,000 gallons of water each month and $7.62 per 1,000 gallons of sewer usage, with residential sewer usage billed on no more than 10,000 gallons a month, on top of the base facility charges (Residential Rates and Charges).

Palm Bay Utilities returns a residential deposit after 36 continuous months of timely payments, or applies it to the final bill when the account is closed (Residential Rates and Charges).

Deposits held by the City of Palm Bay sit in a non-interest bearing account, so no interest is added on return. When a customer stops service and closes the account, the deposit is credited against the final bill; if it exceeds that bill and nothing else is owed, the balance is refunded. The city may require a new deposit where one was previously waived or returned, or an additional deposit, to secure accounts that are consistently delinquent.

The same 36 month rule appears on the Palm Bay connection pages, which describe the $100.00 deposit charged when a home first connects to city water or sewer as refundable after 36 months of timely payments (Service Availability).

Yes: the City of Palm Bay warns that new owners are responsible for unpaid water and sewer service liens when ownership transfers or when they request service at the property (Notice to Property Buyers and Sellers).

The notice exists because, in the city's words, many title companies are not running unrecorded lien (statutory lien) searches before a Palm Bay sale closes, so billed water and sewer charges go undisclosed. The city asks buyers to make sure their title company runs an unrecorded lien search before closing. Palm Bay Lien Research is part of Revenue Customer Service at 120 Malabar Road, phone (321) 733-3045 (Customer Service).

The state law behind the notice gives a bond-issuing city a lien on all land served by its water, sewer or gas system for unpaid service charges, ranking ahead of every other lien except state, county and municipal taxes, and lets the city foreclose liens delinquent for more than 30 days in the way mortgages are foreclosed (Section 159.17, Florida Statutes). The Palm Bay notice quotes that text in full but labels it Florida Statute 159.171; the Florida Senate publishes it as section 159.17.

Palm Bay seasonal residents can suspend solid waste service for up to six months in any twelve month period and ask for the water to be shut off, using the Residential Service Request (Start / Stop / Transfer Service).

A water shut-off does not stop the base charges. Palm Bay water and sewer accounts keep paying the water and sewer base charges during the suspension, and the city charges an administrative fee per trip both to shut the water off and to turn it back on. The city explains the shut-off as protection for an empty house in case a leak starts, and notes that some owners close their own house valve instead to avoid the trip fees. A forwarding address can be added to the application so bills follow the owner during the absence.

For scale, the monthly base facility charges on a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter inside Palm Bay are $16.44 for water and $26.23 for sewer for the year starting October 1, 2026, so a suspended inside-city account still carries $42.67 a month in base charges before any trip fee ($16.44 + $26.23, arithmetic from the published rates) (Residential Rates and Charges).

Trash service has its own accommodation in Palm Bay. Republic Services, the city's hauler, offers carry-out pickup for customers physically unable to move carts to the curb; the application or a signed physician's note goes by fax to (321) 989-6031 or by mail to Republic Services Customer Service, 2575 Doreatha Fields Ave. NE, Palm Bay 32905, and Republic answers questions about it at (321) 989-6030 or toll-free (844) 737-8254 (City of Palm Bay).

Some Palm Bay addresses cannot simply start service, because the Utilities Department's service area covers a large portion of the city but not all of it (Service Availability).

The first step is the Interactive Map on the Palm Bay Service Availability page, searched with the full address including city and state. A property on a private well or septic tank in an area with service can connect, at a cost the city estimates on a standard 80 foot lot.

Owner-occupied Palm Bay homes can spread connection costs over up to five years through a Connection Payment Agreement, set up by appointment with Customer Care at (321) 952-3420; the meter installation and deposit are excluded from the water plan and the deposit from the sewer plan. The city asks owners to confirm their specific costs with Customer Care before applying. The bottom row of the table is arithmetic on the two published totals.

Switching a Palm Bay house from septic to sewer adds steps outside the utility. After the application, Utilities Customer Care issues a work order to locate the clean-out or tap-in point for the sewer lateral. The septic tank abandonment needs a permit from the Department of Health Environmental Health Services Office, reached at (321) 633-2100 option 1, plus a building permit from the City Building Division at (321) 953-8924, and an environmental health inspector checks the abandonment on site. The city suggests connecting the house to the lateral before the tank is abandoned so service is not interrupted (Service Availability).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Utilities Customer Care website.