Program Seeks to Collect Unpaid Water Bills
City officials on Thursday unveiled a program designed to collect $36 million in unpaid water bills from apartment building owners.
The money is owed to the Department of Water and Power for service on 12,500 buildings throughout Los Angeles.
The initiative, called the Utility Maintenance Program, allows tenants of delinquent landlords to pay their rent into an escrow account at the Housing Department in lieu of paying their landlord, said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose office designed the program.
“When an individual is delinquent, the DWP cuts off the water and power, but in a building with one meter where the landlord is responsible for the bill, that’s not an option,” Goldberg said.
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