Unpaid Water Bills Leave Tenants Without Running Water, Facing Eviction

In Ocala, Florida, the Ocala Star Banner reports:

• Unless unpaid water bills are resolved, residents of two local rental communities will soon face dry faucets - and eviction. Both communities - an unnamed, 16-unit subdivision along Northwest 12th Street and Northwest 13th Street, and the Green Oak Apartments off South Pine Avenue - receive water service through a master meter. This setup creates one bill and one account holder for the entire community. The account holders at both communities have neglected to pay their bills, leaving tenants in a precarious situation.

• This is a familiar conundrum for the city. The same scenario unfolded at Busbee Quarters six months ago when residents of the northwest Ocala rental community - mostly low-income and Section 8 assistance recipients - were forced to leave their homes after landlords could not work out issues with delinquent water bills. Now, most of these units sit vacant, many of their owners tangled in foreclosure.

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• If these outstanding bills are not paid before their deadlines, the remaining residents at both communities will be required to relocate because living facilities without running water create sanitation concerns, [Ocala director of water and sewer Henry] Hicks said. Once the water is shut off in cases like these, it is not turned back on until the units are individually metered, he said.

For more, see City rental units at risk of losing water.

For other posts involving the problems tenants face in homes in foreclosure, go here, go here, go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here. SkimmingKappaRent