City shut off my water service. Can they do this?

I live in Michigan -- (sorry if wrong forum, could not decide the appropriate one)

I wake up at noon today and hear a guy outside digging a hole in our front yard... We asked what he was doing, and he indicated that he was shutting off our water due to non-payment. This was a big surprise since we always stay on top of our bills.

I looked through some paperwork and did find the following info:

Billing date: 12/9/05
Past due after: 1/4/06
Total due: 361.78

Also, it read "10% penalty will be added if not paid by due date."

a) This bill is the only notice we ever received. We called the city and they claimed that they sent another notice, but we never got anything.
b) The guy never knocked on the door or asked for any money. We would have gladly paid. A simple phone call or anything would have took care of the situation, instead, he starts digging a big hole in the yard to disable our water. This took him about 30 minutes, knocking on our door or calling would have resulted in quick payment in less than 5 minutes.

We are not some of those people that try to avoid bills. We always try to pay on time and be on top of things, we simply FORGOT... and my dad was out of town. Can they do this when it says they will add a 10% penalty, but instead, they just started digging without even informing us or asking for the money (other than the inital bill)?

Now we've got this spot in our yard with dirt everywhere, and I was late for my meeting. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

azo313 said:

I live in Michigan -- (sorry if wrong forum, could not decide the appropriate one)

I wake up at noon today and hear a guy outside digging a hole in our front yard... We asked what he was doing, and he indicated that he was shutting off our water due to non-payment. This was a big surprise since we always stay on top of our bills.

I looked through some paperwork and did find the following info:

Billing date: 12/9/05
Past due after: 1/4/06
Total due: 361.78

Also, it read "10% penalty will be added if not paid by due date."

a) This bill is the only notice we ever received. We called the city and they claimed that they sent another notice, but we never got anything.
b) The guy never knocked on the door or asked for any money. We would have gladly paid. A simple phone call or anything would have took care of the situation, instead, he starts digging a big hole in the yard to disable our water. This took him about 30 minutes, knocking on our door or calling would have resulted in quick payment in less than 5 minutes.

We are not some of those people that try to avoid bills. We always try to pay on time and be on top of things, we simply FORGOT... and my dad was out of town. Can they do this when it says they will add a 10% penalty, but instead, they just started digging without even informing us or asking for the money (other than the inital bill)?

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

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**A: yes they can do it, they did do it right? So when are you going to pay the bill?

We're paying immediately, as we would have had they simply called, knocked on the door, or sent a second notice.

It just seems extremely unreasonable that they would spend 30 minutes digging a hole in our yard without even calling, or asking for payment. People can and do forget, and that's all that happened.

I have my own company, and the final step when a customer does not pay is to send the account to collection, but you can bet that is my last step. Why? It costs me money, and there's a very good chance I can collect the money by sending an extra notice or two, and calling the customer.

In this case, the city also paid their water employee for 30 minutes of work to go out of his way to shut our water off. Had they simply called, they could have had the money in less than 5 minutes. I just don't understand why they went to the extreme after only sending the initial bill (and supposedly a second notice which we did not receive).

We do not avoid bills.

azo313 said:

We're paying immediately, as we would have had they simply called, knocked on the door, or sent a second notice.

It just seems extremely unreasonable that they would spend 30 minutes digging a hole in our yard without even calling, or asking for payment. People can and do forget, and that's all that happened.

We do not avoid bills.

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**A: do you know how much more the water would cost if the company had to hire extra employees to make reminder calls, send out additional notices, go around knocking on doors etc. That is why the company just uses the ordinance. And guy that came up to turn your meter off is NOT a bill collector. His job is to merely turn off meters.

That doesn't seem right. It took the guy about 30 minutes to turn off the water. I don't know what his hourly wage is, but a phone call would not take 30 minutes. Even calling 5 times on numerous occasions would not take 30 minutes. They could hire less people to make calls than the people who shut off water, because it obviously takes them a long time to do (and makes a mess in people's yards). I could see that as a LAST resort, but one bill and no notices is completely out of line.

azo313 said:

That doesn't seem right. It took the guy about 30 minutes to turn off the water. I don't know what his hourly wage is, but a phone call would not take 30 minutes. Even calling 5 times on numerous occasions would not take 30 minutes. They could hire less people to make calls than the people who shut off water, because it obviously takes them a long time to do (and makes a mess in people's yards). I could see that as a LAST resort, but one bill and no notices is completely out of line.

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**A: I hear you but the law is the law. Why not lobby and get the ordinance changed.

While you are a good person who just made a mistake about this one bill I suspect most of the people this guy turns the water off for are not. Imagine for a moment the scene if this guy knocked on the door of one of the not so honest people telling them that he was shutting off their water. Can you see why this might be a safety issue?

Now I see why they don't go out of their way to make collections, and just shut off service instead -- They don't pay for it.

They tried to charge us a $249 fee for shutting off the water. I refused to pay that since the bill said 10% penalty and we received no other notices. This is a very small city about 5 square miles large... at most.

azo313 said:

Now I see why they don't go out of their way to make collections, and just shut off service instead -- They don't pay for it.

They tried to charge us a $249 fee for shutting off the water. I refused to pay that since the bill said 10% penalty and we received no other notices. This is a very small city about 5 square miles large... at most.

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Whoa!!!!!! Over here it's like 20.00 for up to 2 times and I think 45.00 after that.

I'll bet you won't forget to pay the bill again. If I am right, the water company accomplished what it intended to do. Why should they have to remind you.

Reminders are a nice service but they should not have to remind you again.

Why would they have to dig a hole? My water valves are right out in the open. What a waste of time and money. No wonder they want you to pay a penalty!

You know, it's not like your bill was 2 weeks late. It was due over 5 months ago. It didn't dawn on anyone that the water bill hadn't been paid in a long, long time?

The last two posters are answering a post that's 5 months old.

garrula lingua said:

The last two posters are answering a post that's 5 months old.

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Well color me embarassed!

Well color me doubly embarrassed !
I just did the same thing