The City of Houston says it has not disconnected any customers over delinquent water bills, but thousands of accounts remain at risk as the city works to address roughly $30 million in unpaid bills.<\/p>\n
More than 15,000 accounts across Houston are delinquent, according to the city.<\/p>\n
Customers who are more than 90 days behind or owe at least $500 could be subject to disconnection.<\/p>\n
Houston City Councilmember Tiffany Thomas said her office has been working with residents in District F after Houston Public Works began notifying customers with extreme delinquencies.<\/p>\n
“Public Works have since shared that District F has 920 households on the list that are subject to disconnection,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Thomas said the reasons behind delinquent bills vary. Some residents dispute their bills, while others may have private water leaks that have gone unrepaired.<\/p>\n
In one case, a homeowner contacted Thomas’ office after receiving a water bill for more than $32,000. The homeowner had already been working with Houston Public Works since March to address the issue before contacting Thomas’ office in July.<\/p>\n
The homeowner repaired a private-side leak, while Public Works also repaired an issue on the city’s side. Thomas said the city ultimately refunded the homeowner after determining repairs had been made on both sides.<\/p>\n
Thomas said the case took roughly five to six months to resolve.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely. They administratively did the chargeback,” Thomas said. “I think this is just a reminder to homeowners that, you know, I live in a home that’s old, and I’ve had some damaged water pipes that I’ve had to replace.”<\/p>\n
Thomas is encouraging residents who receive delinquency notices to contact their City Council office or Houston Public Works before their accounts reach the point of disconnection.<\/p>\n
She said residents should review their water bills and check for possible private leaks, maintenance issues or problems with their meters.<\/p>\n
“Pull your water bills,” Thomas said. “Let’s do some due diligence to see if there’s a private leak, if there’s some type of maintenance that needs to happen on our side to reduce your water bill, maybe you need a meter replaced.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Mayor John Whitmire’s office told KHOU 11 the city has not disconnected anyone’s water yet.<\/p>\n
Thomas said residents who need assistance should reach out quickly, including those who may qualify for help from nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n
The city is continuing to educate customers about the delinquent accounts and potential disconnections.<\/p>\n
Got a news tip or story idea? Email us at newstips@khou.com or call 713-521-4310 and include your name and the best way to reach you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Houston says it has not disconnected any customers over delinquent water bills, but thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[156008,156007,56,156006,58,57,28647,36805,36859],"class_list":["post-454149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-city-council-office","tag-delinquent-bills","tag-houston","tag-houston-city-councilmember-tiffany-thomas","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-public-works","tag-water-bill","tag-water-bills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}