Monday, January 10, 2011

LEGAL STEPS POSSIBLITILY IN WAKE OF WATER BILL LIENS

BrocktonPostBROCKTON—Brockton residents who have received liens for overdue water bills in this quarter’s property tax bill and refuse to pay the water bill be aware: Unless you specify you want your property tax payment to be applied to the property tax, the city collector’s office will pay the overdue water bill and interest first.
Treasurer-Collector Martin Brophy said the “hierarchy” of payment requires the collector pay the interest and overdue water bill before applying any payment to the homeowner’s property tax.
Brophy said if residents send in their payments it will go to a so-called “lock-box” and the payment will be applied to the overdue water bill and interest first.
If residents do not want their payment to go to the overdue water bill they should include a note within in their payment if mailed, but the best way to ensure the property tax is paid and not the water bill is to visit city hall in person.
“They’re best bet is to come into the collector’s office themselves and tell the clerk at the counter they want the money applied to their property tax,” Brophy said.
Ayanna YanceyCato, a resident with a nearly $17,000 overdue water bill said the word is spreading about the latest hassle in connection with their water bills following the city’s move to attach the overdue bills to residents’ property taxes—a move residents say is a betrayal of promises not to attach the liens and to give them three years to pay the overdue bills if an audit shows they actually used the water. (For full article see BrocktonPost.com)

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