The city’s water division and sewer authority are chasing hundreds of unpaid bills and assessments, which, unless payments are made, will result in one of the largest tax sales in recent memory. The sale is scheduled for Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
“We hear a lot of personal situations and they’re tough,” said City Treasurer David Olsen yesterday.
Olsen said the city seeks to be “as compassionate as we can,” but some sewer assessments as well as water and sewer usage fees have gone unpaid for years.
According to a legal advertisement in the Warwick Beacon in Thursday’s paper, more than 1,500 names appear on the tax sale list. Some of those names appear more than once, as both water and sewer payments are due.
Olsen said the list started off with 2,500 names and has been reduced since notices of the sale were sent to property owners. All those who are delinquent are sent a letter 90 days before the tax sale, followed by a certified letter 40 days from the sale and yet another notice 20 days before the sale.
Olsen said both the Water Division and the Warwick Sewer Authority offer delinquents a program to make payments and be removed from the tax sale. In the case of the Water Division, a minimum of 20 percent of the amount and a payment schedule is sufficient. The Sewer Authority requires a minimum of 25 percent, Olsen said.
Olsen said whatever plan is implemented, people need to remember it does not include current fees.
“Future bills are not included in a payment plan,” he said.
If the case goes to the tax sale, the city will be paid the money it is owed, plus title fees and notification costs, including mailing and advertising. Olsen put those costs at around $250.
A lien is placed on the property that has one year to clear before the tax sale purchaser can bring action to foreclose on the property.
Under the guidelines, the lien can be lifted with full payment plus a 10 percent penalty within the first six months of the tax sale. After that, the penalty increases by 1 percent per month up to 16 percent for the year.
Olsen said there was a surge of payments following the first two notices as people sought to avoid their names and properties listed.
While Olsen finds the “economy is rebounding,” he said he is also hearing many stories of people being out of work and finding it difficult to make ends meet.
“People are just in tough times, and that’s the problem,” he said.
Olsen is not seeing as many delinquents, which he suspects is a result of bank escrow accounts. As water and sewer fees are based on usage, escrow accounts are not practical, although, he agreed, they could work for sewer assessments.
Olsen did not have a total of what is owed in sewer and water payments, but individual amounts range from $700 to more than $5,000.
Janine Burke, director of the Warwick Sewer Authority, said yesterday they have seen an increase in payments since letters about the tax sale went out.
It has been several years since sewer assessments have been listed for tax sale. About 100 delinquent assessments were withdrawn from the tax sale about 18 months ago, at the request of the administration.
As of Monday, the Beacon was projecting the list would make up seven pages of the newspaper. Lisa Bourque, of the Beacon’s production department, said she has never seen such a long tax sale list in the 20 or so years she has worked at the Beacon.