Half Of Detroit Can't Pay Water Bill. UN To The Rescue? (River Rouge: homes, utilities)

[Driller1]

Originally Posted by OuttaTheLouBurbs

But there are no National Guard tankers in Detroit. No one has sent any form of assistance at all. Everyone is just standing back and hoping someone else will address the elephant in the room. It's a mix of "not my problem," as detwahDJ said, and of denialism stemming from disbelief that people could suffer and be poor in the most powerful nation on earth (so powerful that it can't even solve its own problems!).

They do not need tankers.....they need to get off of their lazy butts and haul water or, pay their bill.

[OuttaTheLouBurbs]

Originally Posted by Driller1

They do not need tankers.....they need to get off of their lazy butts and haul water or, pay their bill.

THEY

ARE

NOT

ABLE

TO

PAY

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Inability=/=Laziness.

And where will they haul water from? It's not like they can dig wells in their backyard.

[MS313]

I read this from somewhere, it seems like this may be the problem.

An outstanding water bill is a lien against the title to a property and should show up in a credit report pertaining to a sale. Given the low quality of City of Detroit record keeping, I could see that it is possible for one to buy a property with liens attached that were not discovered. However, a thorough title search is part of a sale. My last two home purchases cleared thousands of dollars in unpaid HOA fees as part of the deal.

And it is part of the problem.

On my old street in Detroit, there are homes with a market value of $1,000.

If that property has liens for unpaid water and taxes of $3,000, then the true price is now negative $2,000.


The same scenario in a functional area wherein the value of a home is $100,000 would be resolved by dropping the proceeds to the seller to $97,000 and clearing the liens at closing.

It seems, if I wanted to rent properties and bought a few flats around the city, and the previous owners had unpaid waterbills, that would now somehow be my problem because it's my property now. Well ain't that a bi*ch. And for someone who doesn't have to live in the properties he owns, he probably says "FU*K THAT! I'm not paying the water department for sh*t that I didn't use!" and I can imagine alot of new home owners feeling the same, I think that is what alot of people are getting so upset about. I mean, forcing me to pay for someone else's bills is a bunch of bull.

[flyonpa]

If you did a title search and purchased title insurance, you turn it over to the Title Insurance company to pay.

That why you buy title insurance, to be sure you have a clean title when you buy it. If there is a later claim on the title, the Title Insurances job is to fight it, or pay it.

For Negative Properties, Many Cities/Counties will do a quit claim, on there liens to get the lien off there books, and allow the property to be sold, with the hope they it will be tax producing again.

[jessxwrites89]

Originally Posted by MS313

I read this from somewhere, it seems like this may be the problem.
It seems, if I wanted to rent properties and bought a few flats around the city, and the previous owners had unpaid waterbills, that would now somehow be my problem because it's my property now. Well ain't that a bi*ch. And for someone who doesn't have to live in the properties he owns, he probably says "FU*K THAT! I'm not paying the water department for sh*t that I didn't use!" and I can imagine alot of new home owners feeling the same, I think that is what alot of people are getting so upset about. I mean, forcing me to pay for someone else's bills is a bunch of bull.

Really? How do you find this out before you buy a house?

[Driller1]

Originally Posted by OuttaTheLouBurbs

THEY

ARE

NOT

ABLE

TO

PAY

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Inability=/=Laziness.

And where will they haul water from? It's not like they can dig wells in their backyard.

Any park will have water.....any public building...gas stations....friend's homes.

They will find it......they just need to go get it or, pay their bill.

[OuttaTheLouBurbs]

Originally Posted by Driller1

Any park will have water.....any public building...gas stations....friend's homes.

They will find it......they just need to go get it or, pay their bill.

Half of Detroit's parks are shut down. The city went bankrupt, I doubt they can afford to keep drinking fountains maintained and running. Plus the local park drinking fountain is not enough to feed the daily water needs of 350,000 people.

Gas station water costs money. Chances are if you can't afford your water bill, you won't be able to afford water from the gas station either. Unless you're just taking water from the sink, which would just jack up the gas station's water bill and totally defeat the purpose of shutting off water to non-payers to stop people taking advantage of those that can/do pay. And again, gas stations can't fulfill the needs of 350,000 people.

What if their friends can't afford/don't get water either? And again with jacking up someone else's water bill and defeating the purpose of blocking access to nonpayers to stop payers being taken advantage of.

Maybe the best solution would be to encourage community use-everyone on a street or block uses one home's water and all contribute what they can to the water bill. Maybe that will work for those who have little, but I'm not sure about those who have none. Then again, that depends on how well the community works as a unit, if at all-one bad apple might screw up such a system.

[juppiter]

If they cannot afford water, let them eat cake. U.S.A.!!!

[Driller1]

Originally Posted by OuttaTheLouBurbs

Half of Detroit's parks are shut down. The city went bankrupt, I doubt they can afford to keep drinking fountains maintained and running. Plus the local park drinking fountain is not enough to feed the daily water needs of 350,000 people.

Gas station water costs money. Chances are if you can't afford your water bill, you won't be able to afford water from the gas station either. Unless you're just taking water from the sink, which would just jack up the gas station's water bill and totally defeat the purpose of shutting off water to non-payers to stop people taking advantage of those that can/do pay. And again, gas stations can't fulfill the needs of 350,000 people.

What if their friends can't afford/don't get water either? And again with jacking up someone else's water bill and defeating the purpose of blocking access to nonpayers to stop payers being taken advantage of.

Maybe the best solution would be to encourage community use-everyone on a street or block uses one home's water and all contribute what they can to the water bill. Maybe that will work for those who have little, but I'm not sure about those who have none. Then again, that depends on how well the community works as a unit, if at all-one bad apple might screw up such a system.

They will find a place to get water......if not they can just go without if they are that helpless.

[MS313]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

If you did a title search and purchased title insurance, you turn it over to the Title Insurance company to pay.

That why you buy title insurance, to be sure you have a clean title when you buy it. If there is a later claim on the title, the Title Insurances job is to fight it, or pay it.

For Negative Properties, Many Cities/Counties will do a quit claim, on there liens to get the lien off there books, and allow the property to be sold, with the hope they it will be tax producing again.

The thing is, many of these homes are cheap, half the people buying them probably doesn't think about the unpaid pills owed.