City prepares to plug delinquent water bills
You don’t want these guys to show up at your house because that means you failed to heed a water shut off notice sent by the city.
By Charles Sercombe
Behind in paying your water bill?
If so, you better get a payment plan in place with the City of Hamtramck. The city is aiming to collect on $1.1 million owed in back water bills, and once warm weather is here, the collection process is going to get aggressive.
According to Mark Ragsdale, the Director of Public Works, water shutoff notices will be going out “as soon as the weather breaks” and those who owe the city money will have 10 days to pay up or enter into a payment plan.
After that, he said, the city will begin to turn off water service.
Ragsdale said there are likely hundreds of residents and commercial building owners who are delinquent. That will require more employees to help with the crackdown.
“The intent is to hire part-time employees to shut off water because we have that many that need to be done,” Ragsdale said.
Or maybe not.
The last time the city began shutting off water service to households, in July of 2013, hundreds of residents rushed to city hall to catch up on their bill.
Since then, the city has switched from a quarterly billing period to a monthly bill. The thinking was it would be less of a financial blow to households to pay monthly instead of every few months.
That method also benefited the city by bringing in a more regular cash flow.
For those who ignore the shut-off notice beware that there is a $50 charge to reconnect the service.
Amazingly, about one-third of those who have their water service cut off illegally turn the service back on by themselves.
“It tends to be squatters who do this,” Ragsdale said.
For those who do that, the city will charge $500 to return service once the delinquent bill is paid.
Do it again?
The city will dig out the water line and charge $2,100 to put a new one in.
5 Responses to City prepares to plug delinquent water bills
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Kimberly Fulton
March 11, 2015 at 10:04 am
The above story sickens me as a homeowner and an owner of 4 rental homes. I am a small percentage that actually try’s to pay the water bills. The problem I have, is no control over how much water the tenants are abusing in my home. They have no regard for the high monthy water bills that I am stuck paying on their behalf. You might say to go ahead and raise the rent to compensate for their water bills. Wrong answer! It is an obstacle to get the cheap, affordable rent that I charge let alone trying to get additional money for water usage. Hamtramck water is extremely expensive compared to other cities. Which is also sickening in itself! I am being charged for $14.00 a month per house for an additional sanitation fee on top of the water and sanitation amount. Why?? With the water bills and now an increase in inspection fees why would a landlord continue to own a home in Hamtramck? I am all for cracking down on the slumlords. I myself, personally, am not one of those people. And I am continuously having to pay for the slumlords that continue to turn this city into what it is today! Garbage! All this is going to do is not benefit the city but cripple it even further when the landlords decide to sell or dump the houses and move! I have lived here for 45 years and it is a disgrace to know that this city that once was beautiful is now trash. Good luck continuing to cripple it even more. I will fortunately be one of the many leaving!
Abdul
March 11, 2015 at 3:13 pm
Simple, make the tenants responsible for the water bill when they sign the lease and reduce the rent by a fair amount.
Kimberly Fulton
March 12, 2015 at 10:29 am
Wish it was that simple! Bonanza reduce the rent and what happens when the tenant doesn’t pay the water bills? The water bills are in the landlords name. Which in the end you are still paying out of your pocket! Than you have the whole eviction process which allows the tenants to stay for free until the bailiff that charges you a minimum of $500.00 to place their stuff at the curb, so all they need to do is pull up a U Haul and load their goods up! Curb side service at your expense. 99 % of the tenants are not collectable so good luck getting your money judgement. Been in this business for many years. Life is good when you have decent tenants, in this city good luck finding them!
Hamtown resident
April 17, 2015 at 3:48 pm
Yeah, you need better tenants. I have been renting in Hamtramck for a while now and I am responsible for the water bill. Most realtors offer services to vet potential tenants, background checks, credit checks, whole nine yards. They are worth their cost for a good tenant…
Todd Jackson
March 31, 2022 at 5:56 am
Tenants….get jobs and pay your bills on time that you are responsible for.
Landlords…. Quit filling sub human housing with deadbeat tenants. Vet your tenants. Tons of services out there available to make sure you are renting to qualified tenants. That costs money though and I know that’s not part of your slumlord business plan. So maybe you should get a real job and work for a living instead of whining about having to foot the bill for a situation you’ve caused and $500 bailiff fees for problems that you’ve caused. That’s not what cops are for, whiners.
City of hamtramck…. Pay YOUR water bill to Great Lakes water authority because we are tired of paying for you, your slumlord property owners, and your dead beat residents. Detroit should just swallow you up and you bums would all be out of luck. You don’t deserve to be a city. You can’t even manage simple finances.