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The City of Beaumont looking to crack down on overdue utility bills with new ordinance

Recently city council members voted on an ordinance allowing the city to place a lien on a business or secondary home for failure to pay city utility bills.

BEAUMONT, Texas — The city of Beaumont is taking action to close the gap on overdue water bills.

Recently city council members voted on an ordinance allowing the city to place a lien on a business or secondary home for failure to pay city utility bills.

However, city leaders say that this new ordinance does nor apply to homestead residences.

For now, the City of Beaumont is focusing on a plan to get the money they're owed.

"Actual delinquent bills we probably have about 5,600 right now," said Cheryl Ray, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Beaumont.

From now on, whoever is named in said delinquent list could have a lien placed on their property.

"When you sell your property you know, the city would have an interest in that and be able to receive their payment off of that sale," said Ray.

This applies only only to business owners, landlords, real estate investors, and secondary properties.

"A lot of the people that own their home wouldn't, either because if you got a homestead filed on your property, then we can't put a lien on it either," said Ray.

Beaumont landlord Lisa Ford manages seven properties, which she says can be expensive to maintain.

"There could be damage in some of the units that we have. So the deposit funds not only will go toward bills, but they'll also help with the reviving of the property if we have to repaint or make minor repairs," said Ford.

She hopes renters do their part so landlords like herself can continue to pay their bills and not lose their properties.

"We also collect a deposit from all of our renters, so that in the event that they do leave and they don't notify us, we use those funds to pay any outstanding bills that they may have," said Ford.

Ray says that the money that the money the money the city makes from from the bills they collect go into a designated account.

"Our water and sewer services, they act as what we call a proprietary fund which is basically a business. So obviously, if you don't have people paying for their products, or goods or services, then it cost more in the long run for those who do," said Ray.

If enough people do not pay their bills, things could get worse for everyone else financially.

"Result in having to have further rate increases, and we don't want to have to do that either. You know, we just really want to exhaust all methods we have to our availability to be able to collect all these payments," said Ray.

City officials say that the lien is the last resort, and people will receive bills, letters, and phone calls for 2-3 months before a lien is placed on the property. 

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