Ok, So, I had this house in MD years ago and our toilets backed up, so we called a Plumber.
He came out and snaked the lines, cleared the blockage and said that we needed to get our Septic tank pumped.
I said, “We don’t have a Septic Tank”, he said, “Yes, you do”.
In short order he convinced me that he was correct. My prior belief was based on the fact that my Water Company had been billing me for “Sewage” since I bought the house two years ago. It turns out that most of the water bill is not for water coming in, but for sewage going out. Since we had an “In-Ground” pool that needed to be drained, cleaned and re-filled, I contacted my water company to get an adjustment to my bill and they were happy to comply.
Learning that we were on a Septic tank was like finding money.
I contacted the water company and told them this and that I wanted a refund. They sent out a rep to check it out and we ended up negotiating a huge credit to our account.
I know of a couple of cases where people got credit back for sewage after water pipes bursting. They still had to pay for the water coming in, but the water never went into the sewer, so they got about half their money back for the month.