What are front foot benefits?

Front foot benefits (or deferred water and sewer assessments) are imposed by the developer of a residential community to recover all or a portion of the costs of installing the water & sewer infrastructure necessary to connect the community to the public water and sewer system.

In the past, when the infrastructure was installed by the public utility provider, these charges would have appeared on a homeowner’s county tax bill. More recently, the infrastructure has been installed by private developers and these charges are billed annually directly to the homeowner by the front foot benefit utility company.

These annual assessments typically last anywhere between 20-40 years and are outlined in a legal document called a Declaration of Deferred Water and Sewer Charges recorded in county land records.