Property owners seek city notice

A group of Kimball landlords approached the Board of Public Works about utility shutoff notices during its regular meeting on Nov. 24.

The group was represented at the meeting by Chad Miller with at least two other property owners present. Miller stated that electricity was disconnected at one of his properties without notification.

“This came about because a couple of months ago I had some utilities shut off without notification,” Miller said. “We talked to (city administrator Daniel) Ortiz and (Mayor) Prunty about those concerns and they suggested we get with other landlords about those issues.”

Miller said that he hosted a meeting the previous Wednesday with 10 other landlords regarding notification of disconnection prior to the event.

The group discussed possibilities including a seven day notice prior to any discontinuance.

“This really isn’t anything new,” Miller said. “I think back in December of 2014 it was on the Board of Public Works agenda where Mr. Ortiz, I think, after looking through the current landlord utility agreement said that the policy basically is to notify after utility shut-off.”

Miller said that as a landlord he thought he was being notified before utilities are shut off.

“If the tenant says they want utilities shut off, I think the city is doing a good job of contacting us the day of,” Miller added. “But as far as non-payment, that is where we are a little concerned.”

Miller further sought an automatic transfer option for any landlord interested, in which the city would automatically transfer utilities into the landlords name instead of disconnecting power or water.

The third request is the ability to obtain a status update on any properties owned by a landlord, which would allow a property owner to ask if utilities had been shut off.

“I am not at all familiar with what kind of regulations the city is under in terms of privacy,” said Jim Cederburg, BPW president.

Ortiz said that after hearing from Miller he offered to consider the requests once Miller had a chance to meet with other landlords in Kimball. At that time they could bring it before the Board of Public Works at the December meeting.

“This is probably still very premature and those discussions there are some things we need to flush out,” Ortiz said. “We need to meet with our city attorney to see what type of information can be given out as well.”

Ortiz said that any process needs to be uniform across the board for ease of use as well as formality.

“The seven day notice ahead of time, as I told them, if it is something I can program into our power manager software to generate a random letter, it makes it easier for us,” Ortiz said.

The current policy states that landlords will be contacted if an agreement is in place when there is an assumption that a tenant has moved out.

“For our particular case, nine times out of 10, when we shut off someone for electricity, it is for non-payment,” Ortiz said. “We don’t know if they have moved out until we have actually shut off the water, and that usually occurs a couple of days after we shut of the electricity.”

Board member Greg Robinson wondered what percentage of landlords would take the automatic transfer option, if given that opportunity.

Although just two of 12 landlords that met with him expressed interest in automatic transfer, Miller added the option would bring some peace of mind.

“If we have a check box, so at least we have the option,” Miller said. “The more options for the landlord, the more they will like it. Everyone is in agreement that they would rather have a seven day notice than a phone call after the fact.”

Robinson further questioned a notice seven days in advance and how that would work.

“Basically it would be the same thing that Source Gas gives,” Miller said.

He added that the form letter property owners receive from the natural gas supplier reads, “This is a courtesy notification informing you that a notice to terminate gas service has been sent to the above referenced service address.”

Miller said that the notice a landlord receives from Source Gas includes the date the company plans to terminate service.

“I guess my confusion is, how do you know they are not going to pay seven days prior?” Robinson asked.

Prunty said that when a notice is sent to a tenant, the courtesy notice should also be sent to the property owner. This allows the landlord nearly a week to ensure that the tenant will pay the utilities within seven days.

“It won’t be a problem once Daniel gets the (computer program) situation resolved,” Prunty said.

“I don’t really have a problem with any of this, I just need to figure out how it is going to work, while trying to not create a whole bunch of work for someone else,” Robinson said. “I agree with Daniel, it either needs to be everybody does it or nobody does it, maybe with an option here or there. I have no problem, personally, with you checking to see what the status of the utilities is, we just need to check it legally to make sure.”

“They are sitting there possibly three, four or five days without heat in their houses and they didn’t realize they didn’t have heat in their houses,” property owner Jacqueline Miller added. “And we have real problems in the winter time with these houses freezing up.”

Board members agreed to consider solutions and come up with a policy that will work for both parties, the city and landlords in the city.