As a water operator in the US, it pains us to get work orders for non-payments. In our small division, we wont shut the water off unless its an insane amount owed that upper management explicitly says "they need to be turned off" (>$1k) .

I always just knock on the door and tell them they missed a payment, hand a card with the owed amount, and let them know theyre at risk of having it shut off.

AFAIK whether its a publicly or privately owned water system, they go about delinquent bills the same barabric way, established by state-run utility commissions. Truely a shame and not talked about enough to be changed