According to the Detroit Metro Times, Nicole Geissinger, a 32-yr-vintage medical doctor, were given a $5,two hundred invoice from the town of Detroit.

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She referred to as the Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) who instructed her she acquired the past owner’s invoice, which turned into unpaid, and might face a month-to-month overdue charge of over $250 if she did no longer entire fee, in line with the opening.

“I simply moved in,” Geissinger advised Metro Times. “How can I be culpable for it?” A spokesperson for DWSD instructed people that the invoice is correct and the regulation that upholds it, the Water Lien Act of 1939, has been “in impact for many years.”

“This isn’t a brand new regulation. Utility payments lien the assets in Michigan if they pass unpaid and are transferred to the following owner if no longer resolved at some point of the ultimate procedure. This regulation has been in impact for decades,” the spokesperson said.

“The former owner did no longer deliver the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department access to replace the water meter for greater than 13 months after [sending] notices every month to touch us.

They have been no longer being billed for water usage on the belongings because of a meter difficulty, which we could not get access to for the reason that it’s inside the property’s basement,” the consultant continued.

He stated that despite the fact that they have been the usage of water each month, it was in all likelihood “tampered with” and the metropolis needed to reset it “when the new owner gave us access.” According to information acquired by using Metro Times, the past owner changed into simplest paying a flat charge carrier fee.

When the new proprietor moved in, the town repaired the meter, which then as it should be showed the preceding home owner’s water use.

“Upon that recent get entry to to the water meter, we had been capable of replace the account with the contemporary meter analyzing,” the spokesperson added — that is whilst the $5,200 water utilization became determined. He persevered, “The dispute of the invoice is between the previous owner and the current proprietor, now not with the application.”

Nonetheless, Geissinger said it’s “unfair” she needed to pay the preceding owner’s water utilization and informed the local outlet that after the actual estate agent checked the identify at the ultimate time, there wasn’t an amount to report since the DWSD did not have get admission to.

“I am early, early in my profession. I’m a new property owner,” Geissinger said. “But I’m not in a function in which I cannot pay the bill

. There could be a lot of overdue expenses, and it’s going to harm my credit score. I’m stuck with a more than $five,000 water invoice.”

Geissinger spoke with PEOPLE approximately her next steps — and she says she doesn’t “preserve the seller culpable” for the dilemma.

“My first step is I’m going to contact my U.S. Representative,” she says. “I’m thinking about a attorney at the least to consult.

I recognise I can not be the simplest individual that has been in this example…What I could hope might come out of that is a few type of alternate.”

Michigan Woman Gets Stuck with $5,200 Water Bill After Buying New Homehttps://t.co/EZG9I03nUK

— Katie Ann (@KatieAnn417) October 7, 2022