{"id":32203,"date":"2024-03-20T18:55:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T18:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=32203"},"modified":"2024-03-20T18:55:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T18:55:26","slug":"mayor-adams-demands-water-bill-dodgers-to-pay-debt-or-risk-losing-water-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/32203","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Adams demands water bill dodgers to pay debt or risk losing water access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NEW YORK: New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala announced that the city has initiated the next phase of its expanded collection enforcement actions against approximately 2,400 chronically-delinquent water service accounts that owe the city a total of $102 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As part of the effort, DEP will send out \u2018water shutoff notices\u2019 to these customers, informing them that water service to their property could be shut off unless the entire owed amount is paid or they enter into a payment agreement within the next 15 days.<\/p>\n<p>This enforcement action is targeted towards commercial properties, including hotels, office buildings, and retail spaces, as well as one-to-three family homes that have not responded to any of DEP\u2019s extensive outreach efforts over the past year. Earlier this year, DEP sent out \u2018Water Shutoff Warning\u2019 letters, which resulted in the agency recouping more than $3 million dollars from more than 400 overdue accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe gave these delinquent customers a chance to clear their water debts and save millions on interest through our water amnesty program, and while more than 100,000 took us up on our reasonable offer, a small percentage of customers incorrectly made the mistake of thinking they could get away with stiffing their fellow New Yorkers without any accountability,\u201d said Mayor Adams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to allow big commercial properties and others leave the rest of us holding their water bills. DEP is sending \u2018Water Shutoff Notices\u2019 to 2,400 chronically-delinquent customers who owe over $102 million in unpaid bills. While we aim to work with these customers one last time, we will not look away while landlords and property owners ignore their obligations to their neighbors and their city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDEP is serious about collecting the outstanding money owed from delinquent accounts and we will be shutting off water service for customers that don\u2019t resolve their overdue bills,\u201d said DEP Commissioner Aggarwala.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDelinquent customers who refuse to pay their water bills force everyone else to pay higher rates. That is simply not right, and it must stop. Everyone must pay their fair share to support our critical water system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the pandemic, DEP saw a significant increase in the number and balance of delinquent accounts. The total of delinquent payments nearly doubled to $1.2 billion, which threatened the operations and capital needs of a service the city could not survive without.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, DEP initiated a successful amnesty program that helped more than 100,000 New Yorkers reduce their water bill debts, while saving them more than $22 million in interest. Of the nearly 200,000 customers who owed money on late water bills when the program started, more than 50 percent participated in the popular program \u2014 bringing in nearly $105 million in payments from substantially past due accounts. To help low-income customers, during the amnesty program, DEP granted $8 million in additional billing credits to those accounts that had participated in New York state\u2019s Low Income Homeowner Water Assistance Program.<\/p>\n<p>Shutting off water service can have serious consequences and may subject property owners to code violations by the New York City Department of Buildings, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Fire Department of the City of New York, as well as the potential for an Order to Vacate the Premises.<\/p>\n<p>Water service shutoffs may also affect a property owner\u2019s insurance policy and\/or mortgage. Additionally, a loss of water could impact a property\u2019s heating system; owners should consult whoever maintains the property\u2019s boiler or furnace as to whether any special actions must be taken if there is a loss of water.<\/p>\n<p>Money recouped through enforcement actions will be used by DEP to keep water rates low for all customers, and all bill payments are used to fund maintenance, upgrades, and repairs to almost 15,000 miles of water and sewer mains, 19 reservoirs, 12,000 rain gardens, and 14 wastewater resource recovery facilities. Nearly half the population of New York state enjoys New York City\u2019s tap water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK: New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala announced that the city has initiated the next phase of its expanded collection enforcement actions against approximately 2,400 chronically-delinquent water service accounts that owe the city a total of $102 million. As part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1469,31,1378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york","category-news","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32204,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32203\/revisions\/32204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}