My girlfriend told me that when she bought her condo, there was an outstanding sewer bill for which she would have been held responsible had she not called it to the prior owner’s attention. She said the sewer bills are tied to the property and not the property owner.
This doesn’t make sense to me. I know that if there’s an outstanding balance on, say, the cable TV bill from a previous tenant or owner, the cable company can’t force the new owner to pay the previous owner’s bill.
It isn’t a big deal, but I was curious about how these things can be tied to pieces of property as opposed to individuals.
Any insight from the Teeming Millions?
Just my WAG here, but things like sewer, water and trash collection are normally provided by the city/county/municipal government, and are provided to all residents, unlike cable, telephone and other utilities which are handled by for-profit corporations.
When you move, you don’t have to arrange to have the water or sewer “disconnected” and “reconnected” like you do with phone or cable.
In my experience, whenever I have bought or sold a home things like the sewer and water bills are taken into account at the time of closing and are pro-rated based on the days of service already paid but not used.
A firend on mine is a programmer for a company that sells govt accounting software. 99% of all local and county govt’s do accounting type things, the exact same way. However, the major variation is how they handle utilities.
Some goverments treat utilities as a true govt service and unpaid bills became a lien against your property if not paid. You must swap money at closing to clear all liens.
Some goverments treat utilities as a servcie provided to a particluar customer and if given proper notice when a property changed hands will chase the old owner if he skips out on a bill. As long as you notify them when you bought the house and they read the meter, you’re off the hook.
Some goverments bill using flat rates - all residential connections pay the same $37.50 per month. No meters involved. Who has to pay the bill? Could be either of the above techniques.!!
Some goverments meter everything and also charge you sewer disposal fees based on the amount of water metered. Again, who pays? See above.
One govt reads the meter once a year and then bills it’s clients quarterly for the water used. So over the 4 quarters of 2006, Joe Citizen is paying for the water used in 2005.
Bizarre world out there.