Need urgent -Atlanta watershed - $5000 bill - they shut service

[Paolo Ruggieri]

All,

I recently purchase and rented 3 properties. in all 3 cases I tenant left after some time and I had to turn water in my name... when bill came was outrageous: $1000-$3000 each bill. Almost $6000 in total. In all 3 properties I know there was a issue with prior tenant water bill: in one case tenant has been delinquent, in the other case tenant used a stolen meter, in the third case apperantly meter was magically on physically, but in the system it was off.

I had a plumber going in to investigate leaks. While he did find mutiple leaks (toilets, gaskets misssing etc), he told me that none of them was worth more than $300 dollar bill... 

Unfortunantly he also told me that City of Atlanta adjusts bills for burst pipes in the front yard because they can't be detected, but will not adjust bills for leaks in the house, because they consider them negligence, as they can be seen.

In my case I suspect the city is charging me for what the tenants owed, but I am not 100% sure.

They sent me a letter that if I do not pay by Thursday Jan 5th, they will shut water off. As soon as I received the bills I filed for a dispute, over the phone they told me that I do not have to pay the bill till the dispute is resolved, but now they sent me a letter saying that they are shutting utility off... crazy.

I am planning to go tomorrow to negotiate... however, I have had horrrible expericnes with them so far and found out that typically they do not tell me what is going on (not sure if they hide things, or if the people at the window are not knowledgeble, or if they just do not care)... and there is not much hope unless you know someone.

A friend of mine (another investor) told me that he got a $64,000 (yes you are reading it right... $64,000 bill) that they would not reduce... he contacted the news and once they found out it was investigated by the media they immidiatly cancelled the bill. Now in his case was more evident and it was a "better story" for the media then my billls.

I need to go tomorrow because they wrote that they day after tomorrow they will shut off the service. Please let me know any word of wisdom you might have... specifically let me know if you went through the same thing and how you resolved it... I truly appreciate!