This past winter, the Town of Olds experimented with a different method of collecting utility accounts in arrears. At its next regular meeting on Aug. 25, council could make this method official policy.Council decided at its policies and priorities meeting on July 21 to vote next month on the new process of collecting overdue utility bills, which would not involve the current practice of shutting off services but would instead transfer outstanding utility payments to a person's property taxes.Last November, the town decided to transfer overdue utility payments to taxes because weather made it inefficient for town workers to shut off services, said Garth Lucas, the town's director of corporate services.“Through the weather, with the amount of snow that we had and with the frozen ground, it was just not cost-effective to try to turn off water,” he said.Lucas said there was not much of a difference in collection success rates when transferring overdue payments to taxes – an office and administrative task – compared to halting services.“It's a lot less demanding on town resources to transfer to taxes than it is to shut off,” he said.According to the July 21 council agenda, the outstanding accounts dealt with so far were more than 45 days overdue and this method of collection was used on a trial basis until June.Regarding rental properties, the onus to pay utility bills would be shifted to property owners. After holding an open house on the matter, the town decided that utility services can be shut off but only at the landlord's request, Lucas said.“It's not going to happen automatically. It has to be at the landlord's request. For an overdue account, we still have the ability to make the attempt to shut off the water,” he said.”Once that happens, the outstanding balance would have to be paid before service is resumed, he continued.Before the overdue amounts are billed to a homeowner's property taxes, the town will send a notification letter, the agenda stated.“So we don't transfer to taxes without letting the landlord or the property owner … know. We're trying to do this as openly as possible and keep everybody in the loop, so to speak,” Lucas said.He added the message utility account holders should take away is that the town will collect what it's owed, one way or another.“If you don't pay for it, there is still the possibility that the service would be discontinued, interrupted, whatever nice way you want to say it,” he said. “And sooner or later that water service is going to have to be paid for. Because even if it's transferred to taxes, it's going to sit there until it's paid and the end result, now it's going to take a couple of years for that to accumulate – but the end result will be that property could be sold by the town to recover those costs.“So the succinct way is, pay your water bill. Everybody should pay their water bill."[email protected]
