All Forum Posts by: Saul L.

The bill is in the name of the "resident" and the address.

I have managed to download all the billing history from dwsd website as per @joel owens advice. A bill was issued every single month to the tenant with 0 due for over 2.5 years.

Thanks Richard, as always your advice is spot on and I can see it was learned the hard way from hands on experience.

Thing is, all the advice is good for the next tenant. What would you suggest in the current position.? Any suggestions?

Hey @Dom K.- my fingers are also crossed- but I think you may have misread- I was the owner- I sold the house with the tenant- signed, sealed and paid for, we pulled the final bill to settle and discovered the city has not been charging my tenant for the last few years - the outstanding bill every single month has been zero - up till now. 

@Carson M. It would appear that even if the PM had pulled the water bill at any time they would have seen a zero balance owed - which would have indicated a very conscientious tenant.

 No - in this case the city did not bill the whole time, The billing history on the city website shows zero every single month for the last 2.5 years. It would appear that the city messed up- didn't read the meter or bill for usage, and now that we requested a final bill-  are trying to collect everything retroactively. 

Since I began investing in Detroit a few years ago I cannot get my head around so many things regarding the way things are done over there - but this one definitely is a contender for taking the cake. 

End of April I sold one of my section 8 tenanted homes. This home has had the same tenant continuously since bought about 2.5 years ago. The sale closed and I have received  payment - Title company held the usual $300 in escrow for final water and sewage bill. This has taken about a month to extract from the city and I couldn't believe it when I saw it. The bill is for $5,353 pertaining to usage for 11 days in beginning May ?!?. A search of the billing history shows zero billing on the house every single month since I bought it. 

The only thing I can make of it at the moment is that the city didn't bill, the tenant didn't pay, the PM never checked and someone is going to take a fall (hopefully not me). (Even if this bill is for 2.5 years usage it seems too high?) I cant see the tenant being capable of paying. 

How do you see this panning out ? Can the buyer come back to me considering closing and transfer have taken place and the bill period is post closing ? Have any of you ever run across this kind of situation ? Any insight welcome.

As far as  I know, definitely not.

@Larry Fried is a current investor and enthusiastic proponent to talk to. 

Hello Daniela,

Welcome to BP. You have found an invaluable resource for RE investing in general and in the US specifically. As a foreign investor who has been there and done that, let me be the first of many on BP to warn you - Detroit is not for foreign newbie investors. Detroit is a very lucrative market for local, experienced investors working on the ground day in and day out, but it isn't for absentee landlords. The risk and return are just not worth it.

Why are you paying the gas if its not on the lease ?