City Howl Help Desk: LIEN ON ME

City Howl is a Web site that allows citizens to post their raves or rants about city services (see

» READ MORE: www.thecityhowl.com

).

Every Wednesday, we publish highlights of our investigations into some of these problems.

The problem:

Back in September 2009, the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) slapped two liens on a residential triplex on North 15th Street for owing more than $8,000 in charges and late fees.

Glenn Paige, who owns the property, knows the agency had to do something about the unpaid bills. He just wishes he'd been aware of them. PGW had been sending notices to his tenants at the property - the ones who neglected to pay in the first place.

Paige, who has been a PGW customer in good standing for more than 20 years, first found out about the liens when a PGW employee called him to get access to the property to terminate service.

"I understand that under the law, I have a responsibility here," said Paige, clearly frustrated. "However, I don't understand why they let this grow to almost $10,000 without contacting me."

It was only after contacting the billing department at PGW that Paige found out about PGW's Landlord Cooperation Program (LCP).

Available only to residential property owners, the program protects people like Paige from tenants who don't pay their gas bills by having landlords register properties and then cooperate with PGW to put pressure on deadbeats. In exchange, PGW agrees to not place liens, which prevent property owners from selling or refinancing until their bills are paid, on properties that are behind on payments.

He was still frustrated though, by all the questions he wanted to ask PGW:

"Why did you mail the lien notice to the property and not [my] home? You have my telephone number. You have both addresses. So why didn't I get a notice at my home about the liens?

"Why wasn't I made aware earlier of the landlord program?"

Paige said that he won't pay to have the liens against his property removed until he gets a satisfactory answer from PGW.

"In the end, if they say that this is my responsibility, I'll pay it," he said. "But I want to know why I wasn't notified."

So why wasn't he? The unpaid bills got sent to Paige's tenants, instead of to him, PGW spokesperson Cameron Kline said, because Paige's triplex was in PGW's system separately from his home.

Had he been enrolled in the Landlord Cooperation Program at the time, PGW would have known to send the bills to him. Paige said he didn't know about the program.

Kline acknowledged that Paige may not have known about the LCP, but defended PGW's overall efforts to prevent this kind of situation. He said the agency tries very hard to let landlords know how to avoid getting slapped with liens.

"We're doing everything we can to reach out through advertisements, through our Web site, and through mailings to customers," Kline said. "We also sent out mailings with L&I to landlords in the city in June."

He stressed that there are more than 13,000 participants and that PGW wants to work with residential landlords to avoid situations like Paige's. Now, though, the program is mostly taken advantage of by larger landlords with multiple properties. For a small fry like Paige, it's easy to fall through the cracks.

For his part, Paige wants to press the rewind button. He said he wants to go back to the original amount owed when the property was first delinquent. If PGW refuses, he'll consider taking other actions.

"I'll look into legal representation, but we'll balance those costs with the overall cost of the lien. If need be, [the lien] will be paid for," he said. "I'm not going to lose my home over this. But I think it's highly unfair that I have to pay the entire thing."

But, according to PGW, Paige is basically out of options.

"On this particular property, we did a thorough account review about what options are available," Kline said. "Based on his payment history, there is nothing additional we can do for him. We can't retroactively put someone in the landlord program."

Landlords can take this as a warning: Your only protection from deadbeat tenants is make sure PGW knows you're a landlord in the first place.

For more on PGW's landlord program, visit www.pgworks.com/index.asp?NID=184.

- Ben Waxman

A few weeks ago, we told you about Rachel in Manayunk, who was having problems with overgrown vines and weeds in her neighbor's yard. The vegetation was attracting snakes and raccoons, and one vine had wrapped around the telephone wire leading into Rachel's house, bringing it down.

Licenses and Inspections Commissioner Fran Burns promised to keep the pressure on the property owner, and within a couple of weeks, it looked like the pressure finally worked. Burns said a recent inspection showed the weeds and vines had been trimmed, and the violations had been resolved.

Rachel's also happy, writing in an e-mail that L&I had promised to stay on top of future violations. Score one against the raccoons.

- Anthony Campisi

Ben Waxman and Anthony Campisi report for It's Our Money

(www.ourmoneyphilly.com).

Have a problem getting services from a city department, or an idea for a more effective way to get things done? Let us know about it at www.thecityhowl.com

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