HUD Articles

Client: Nationwide Bank

The Challenge

Our client was slapped with a water bill in excess of $11,000.

The Solution

One way to start off a real estate investment in the hole is to discover you have a utility bill over $10,000 and you can’t figure out why. Upon further inspection, we discovered there was a leak inside the home between two walls that had traveled down into drain tile and was not visible during the interior inspection. Our first step was to contact the City. They delivered us with some bad news and informed us that interior plumbing issues are the responsibility of the owners and that the bill would be due in full. However, we noted that the City is supposed to shut off the water at the street once the building is registered as vacant. The City tried to tell us that they did not have a record of the vacant property in their system. We fired back and told the City that the building had been properly registered as vacant and we were able to provide them a copy of the paid vacant property registration certification from 4 months prior (before the spike in usage). The City stated they would review it and we remained diligent, following up with them weekly for nearly 6 weeks until finally the City waived the bill.