The City of Vandalia’s Water and Sewer Committee had further discussion on the water bill issue with several landlords on hand for the meeting on Monday evening.
Back at their July 21st meeting, the Vandalia City Council voted to make a change to an ordinance that they believed would make it easier to go after property owners, or landlords. to collect on past due water bills. But, one week after that, Mayor Doug Knebel made the decision to return the ordinance to the City Council with written objections after some heavy objections from landlords in the community. So, the change did not go into effect and the matter was discussed extensively at the City’s August 4th meeting with the matter referred off to the City’s Water and Sewer Committee.
After a brief introduction by Committee Head Bret Brosman, City Attorney Ryan Connor laid out a plan they came up with that would give the landlords more information. To start with, it would let landlords know when their tenants got behind on their water bills.
Also, when there is higher water usage–which could be caused by either a leak or misuse–both the tenant and the landlord would be notified of the issue. Also, the City would ask that the landlord inform the City of the termination of the lease within 7 days of that happening. Connor says only if the landlord didn’t do that would it fall back to them.
It was also clarified that the end of the occupancy is when the renter’s time is officially up—not if they left before that time without the landlord knowing. Committee Chair Brosman pointed out that past due water bill amounts for the city are very small, but Connor pointed out this is to close blind spots to stop the big issues from happening.
It was discussed that a tenant with a leak ran up a $3,500 water bill and that is what these policies would hope to stop going forward. Most of the landlords on hand for the meeting seemed to be in agreement with the potential policy changes. Connor says the ordinance will be drawn up for the September 2nd meeting, where it will probably just be discussed. The matter would likely then be ready for a vote at the September 15th meeting.
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