Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Hauler to Revise Handling of Debts

The City Council has ordered changes to the debt collection process used by Waste Management of Lancaster, the city’s main trash hauler, after an angry crowd of landlords complained that they were being unfairly saddled with tenants’ delinquent bills.

Under the terms of Lancaster’s 2-year-old franchise agreement with Waste Management, council members Monday night were asked to place liens on nearly 600 properties in the city because Waste Management officials said they had unpaid trash bills from 1992 totaling about $64,000.

Council members placed liens on the owner-occupied properties on the list, estimated to be about half of the total. But the council took no action on the list’s rental properties after landlords said they were never told of their tenants’ debts until getting notices of the proposed liens last month.

“We agree. Yes, it was probably a mistake of not letting the owners know sooner,” said Carrol Hill, division president for Waste Management’s Lancaster operation. Waste Management is the nation’s largest trash hauler but has a history of legal problems over its business practices.

Hill told council members that the company used collection agency services and repeatedly sent delinquency letters to customers’ service addresses before asking the city to place liens on the property. But for rentals, Hill conceded, those notices went to tenants and not the property owners.

“I’m appalled at that,” said Councilman Frank Roberts. He and other council members directed city officials to work with Waste Management on a new policy that would guarantee notice to property owners of any unpaid trash bills left by tenants long before any lien proceedings.

“What you see is the moral if not legal equivalent of taxation without representation,” complained Lancaster landlord Jay Levine, pointing out that other utilities make a practice of notifying property owners unlike Waste Management. “This is not a good way to do business,” Levine said.

By getting the city to place liens on property, Waste Management is guaranteed of getting the amounts owed when the property is sold. The amounts owed per property ranged from $18 to $632. Waste Management also promised to resolve claims by some owners that they had been improperly billed.