Property owners who haven’t paid their storm water fees may take a hit on their credit scores if they don’t pay up under a proposal the City Council will consider Monday.
When the council abolished the controversial Stormwater Enterprise after the Nov. 3 passage of ballot Issue 300, council members asked city staff to come up with recommendations for collecting past-due fees, which now total more than $2.5 million.
The staff’s recommendation is to task the city’s current collection agency to go after delinquent property owners.
Under the proposal, the city will provide the collection agency a list of overdue accounts.
“Letters and phone calls will be (the) primary collection method,” according to a PowerPoint presentation prepared for the council.
“Delinquent accounts may be reported to (the) credit agency – this is our option, not mandatory,” documents state. “This credit report acts as the ‘incentive’ or the ‘stick’ to encourage people to pay their bill.”
The collection agency will file a so-called notice of lien against a property “only when all other means have been pursued,” documents state.
However, no action will be taken on the liens.
“Liens will likely be paid off when properties are sold,” documents state.
The collection agency will receive 30 percent net of collections on regular accounts and half “for accounts where legal action is taken to collect.”
Of the $2.5 million in unpaid fees, $1.9 million is past-due 90 days or more.
“There has been an approximate 15 percent decline in bill payment of the invoices that have been issued since passage of Initiative 300,” documents state.
so what . they can not hit a credit score. it is a threat. how are they going to hit credit scores on llc and llp and trusts properties. this is all a threat to get more people to pay. city you had better be careful, you may be sued for what you are about to do. also do you really think you are winning the frienship of the people in the community by doing this. you will kill any chance of any of us voting yes on any type of tax increase. let the fake collection calls begin.
My advice to the city: Don’t spend too much precious city resources trying to collect that bill, and keep your expectations (of actually collecting monies) fairly low.
Looking forward to seeing this in court!!Would sure like to see the signed agreements the city is planning on producing in court.Law works both ways,and in this case Colorado Springs will likely lose a ton.
Collection agencies serve a purpose and a lawful one at that. Fortunately they are governed by rules, even in Colorado (surprisingly). Unfortunately many violate those rules in their attempts to collect debts. My strong suggestion is that you spend the meager amount it costs to obtain a telephone recording device and record ANY and ALL calls from collection agencies. You do NOT have to notify them you are recording as this is a single-party notification state (though there is some question as to whether you must notify them if they are calling from a dual-party notification state). In either case, notifying them will (a) solve this question and (b) likely end the call immediately as few agree to be recorded.
Recording these calls protects you and holds the collection agents (and their employers) responsible. Most actions filed against these agencies are settled at once prior to any court hearing as they’ve little defense when confronted with a clear and unquestionable violation of the regulations/rules.
Best alternative, pay your bills. If you can not, protect yourself from these sometimes predatory vermin. Know your rights and insist they be honored.
What part of “illegal fee” doesn’t City Council understand?! They have no business collecting on these, even past due ones. They had no business collecting in the first place because it was not approved by the taxpayers..
The Stormwater fee is not an illegal fee, especially prior to the election. So are you deadbeats in this town need to pay up. The rest of us who are law-abiding citizens and care about the quality of the community are really sick of your kind – “if you want it, YOU can pay for it”. If that’s how you feel, then stay home, don’t drive on any roads, flush your toilets, call the police or the fire department ever, don’t visit a park (even when the relatives come to town), grow your own food, find your own water and create your own energy sources, etc. We all collectively pay for this community’s infrastructure and that should mean everyone…
Some people may owe just their last bill, about 12.00–are the collections going to try and get 12.00–and as i understand–a lien of any kind can only be put on a property for no more than 6 years, and then remove. just don’t move or die for the next 6 years. I can’t Wait to vote them out. and i hope they get their street lights turned out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO HE!! with them. Whats up with putting Stormwater on the back pages and on a Friday? Because we know we won, and their all full of it.
The next flooding, WHEN (not IF) your runoff damages my property and you paid your bill in good faith: no worries. However, I will track down all delinquent property owners upstream and sue them for triple damages.
Your choice. You could’ve paid them back then. You could pay them now with little accrued interest and penalty, or you can pay me directly later.
On top of lower credit scores, wait til you see the impact this has on your house insurance and insurability.
Notsofast:
HINT: DON’T BUY A HOUSE IN A FLOOD ZONE!!!!!!!
Flood zones are FEMA-designated. no one can build there, let alone buy there.
Hint to proamerica: Fort Collins a decade ago, the Big Thompson Canyon 2 decades ago, the PlumCreek-Cherry Creek-Denver, and two devastating prewar Skooks Run floods flood areas were all well above FEMA’s 100-year flood zones. Saturated and impervious acreage as far as 50 miles upstream overtopped the 1000-year flood contour levels.
it WILL happen again.
You can takes steps to mitigate floods, pay to maintain and keep floodways unobstructed. You can refrain from clogging inlets with your grass clippings, battery acid, motor oil, leaves and dog doo.
You can still pay the back dues. Or you can pay the late penalties. Or you can suffer the credit rating hit. or take a chance on a lien that would complicate selling your house, getting a 2nd mortgage/home improv loan.
Or, if my neighbors and I reach a damage settlement against you, your property can be foreclosed.
“… do you feel lucky?”
i feel lucky loser, lucky i will never have to pay a stormwater fee. Take that to court sue happy fake loser.
notsofast says:
it WILL happen again.
You can takes steps to mitigate floods, pay to maintain and keep floodways unobstructed. You can refrain from clogging inlets with your grass clippings, battery acid, motor oil, leaves and dog doo.
You can still pay the back dues. Or you can pay the late penalties. Or you can suffer the credit rating hit. or take a chance on a lien that would complicate selling your house, getting a 2nd mortgage/home improv loan.
Or, if my neighbors and I reach a damage settlement against you, your property can be foreclosed.
“… do you feel lucky?”
Do it corrupt city, no more threats, just do it and show your evil corrupt colors. No wonder so many people hate the city government.
They hate the people that live in the community they govern. They show it time and time again.
As someone who paid my stormwater fees on time as required, I say shame on all you cheapskates and freeloaders who have refused to pay up — including El Paso County. Shame on you!
Shame on you for being dumb and paying it when it was not a requirement and was not a tax.
truecitizen says:
As someone who paid my stormwater fees on time as required, I say shame on all you cheapskates and freeloaders who have refused to pay up — including El Paso County. Shame on you!
Don’t worry. When the first collector calls Douggie, the city will spend a lot of money on the lawsuit. He’ll more than likely make it a class action and the city will be out a bunch of money.
I am really afraid now. No I am not. Who cares about their credit rating anymore. After 45 years keeping impeccable credit the whole system has become bogus. It no longer matters and the city will discover that soon enough.
Listen city politicians. We are not afraid and will not be intimidated. The more you threaten us the less likely we will cooperate.
You are not winning friends with heavy handed tactics. Don’t expect us to approve any additional tax increases or “fees”. As a matter of fact we may actually take money away from you so be careful threatening us.
I would certainly like to stick it to City Council.
I marvel at the whole concept of punishing people that could not afford to pay for something that never should have been voted or enacted upon to begin with. Might as well start charging for public toilets now.
1- Maybe if they would have answered their phone the 15 or 20 times I have attempted to contact them via phone over a slight issue I have, mine would be current by now!
2- So…let me see if I understand this correctly, the County gets to decide that they ( yeah I know..it is our tax dollars) are not paying after the election date, but I as a lowly tax payer am supposed to pay through the end of the year….. Is it just me, or does that seem messed up to anyone else?
3- This one public display of City Council’s integrity and ethics is enough to get me to vote “OH HECK NO” on every tax increase vote I ever see going forward.