This article aims to contribute to the limited literature dealing with the disturbance caused to local residents by malfunctioning sewer networks. It explores the preferences of residents in the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (France), with the aim of redefining priorities for sewer network asset management. Valuation is performed using the contingent ranking method and results are compared to a recoded choice experiment. Comparison of results from both methods reveals that price influences the ranking of the different alternatives given to the respondents, but does not influence respondents' preferred alternative. In other words, the price of the alternatives is only considered by respondents later in the decision process. For residents, the trade-offs between the potential disruption caused by a network malfunction favour the reduction of the risk of flooding (either in terms of their frequency or attained water levels). These findings highlight the challenges of asset management.