Thursday, March 27, 2008 |
During the quarter from July 1, 2007 through Sept. 30, 2007, the city of Bandon had a total of $8,876 in utility bills that customers failed to pay, according to City Manager Matt Winkel’s monthly newsletter.
That amount represents customers who either left their residence or business without paying their final bill, or had their service disconnected for failing to pay.
Periodically, in order to apply any utility deposits which the city is holding, these unpaid amounts are written off as “bad debts.” Then, if the city is able to determine a customer’s new address or workplace, the city pursues the bad debt through small claims court to obtain a wage garnishment order. In addition, the names of all customers with bad debts are turned over to all of the major credit reporting agencies. In difficult-to-collect cases, the debt also is turned over to the city’s collection agency.
For this last quarter, a total of $2,375 in deposits (with interest) were applied against the unpaid bills, for a net loss of $6,500, according to Winkel. During that same period, a total of $420 was recommended for new small claims actions, and $2,307 was collected from former customers for previously written off bad debts.
Any customer who has an unpaid bad debt, and wishes to re-establish utility service, must first pay all of that unpaid amount, in addition to a new utility deposit, Winkel wrote.
“The city pursues bad debts as vigorously as possible, since it is the good utility customers who are ultimately paying for those who do not pay their bills,” he added.
|
|
|
|
