With accounting systems like these...

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Who needs enemies.  Just got my water bill, with a huge unpaid balance.  Which is odd because I paid it in full in December, at the window.  And yep, there's the canceled check.  So ensues fun & games with City Hall.

Turns out they took the day I paid it they shifted a portion of the prior bill to a lien.  And applied the full check to said lien, leaving the rest of the money as a non-interest earning credit on the lien account, while charging me 14% on the unpaid waterbill.  Also, my math may be off, but 14% on $800 for three months is a crapload less than the $120 in interest that went on to the account.

Oh, also, while they send out lien statements, said statements WILL NOT SHOW a credit balance at all, so you don't get to find out if this happened to you, at least not an easy way.

In any case, huge kudos to the supervisor Ms. Craveiro for at least figuring out the issues.  Sadly office was closed at that point, so fixing it will have to wait until Monday.   We'll see how much of a fight I have about getting the interest charges reversed...

In any case, make sure the checks you pay to the town go to the right thing, in the right amount... not just that they are cashed the week after you submit them.

Comments

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

So, you were about 1 month late on a bill and they started a lien already? Yes, we should pay bills on time, but that's a bit silly.

The more I learn about Somerville, the less appealing buying a house there becomes (my wife and I plan on buying within the next couple months).

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Well, more to the point, 50% of the check ended up as "credit", and 50% of the bill continued to accrue interest.... with no way for me to find out this had happened until I got the next bill, 3 months later, and tracked down why it had an unpaid balance...

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

Agreed. We're house hunting, too, and I've already completely refused to even *look* in Somerville.

well, that's silly

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Every city or town has its oddities and negatives, but there's a lot of wonderful things about Somerville as well.

Re: well, that's silly

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

honestly, the bad is outweighing the good for me right now too.

Re: well, that's silly

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Um, not really to the extent of somerville's

Re: well, that's silly

[alphacygni]

Agreed - every town has its own quirks. For instance, while househunting I wouldn't consider anything in Somerville without off-street parking. But other than that, I liked Somerville just fine, and eventually did end up buying there.

I'll try to keep seriously on top of my paperwork, I guess. But I would probably try to do that anywhere. I'm paranoid that way.

[djethan.livejournal.com]

For those avoiding Somerville, two questions:

1. Where are you looking? (Medford? Arlington?)

2. What specifically about Somerville makes you want to avoid purchasing there? (Overzealous parking ticket-writing? Cost? Politics?)

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Well, there is this: http://www.theonion.com/articles/something-wrong-with-literally-everything-in-apart,19737/

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

lol, that's awesome, who knew there was an article on the onion about an apartment in somerville, nice.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

I have confidence that it will get straightened out, the interest I was charged on the "balance" while the "credit" sat in another account will be reversed. But it will be a couple hours of my time... was mostly posting it as a PSA, since I'd never heard of this sort of bureaucratic cock-up before.

[she-of-emeralds.livejournal.com]

Bureaucracies suck, for sure. Don't even ask about what NStar did to my gas bill. *shudders*

[maffematician.livejournal.com]

I'll bite. What did NStar do to your gas bill?

[kalimba21.livejournal.com]

As long as you have off street parking, it's not too bad owning in our fair city - only the increasing transit noise may drive me out. However, here's something else to pay attention to ---
I live on one of those streets that has another street with the same name, but different ending, rd vs st, etc. Well, my tax checks were applied for about a year to the other house. They kept saying I wasn't paying my taxes, and it was extremely difficult to unravel and figure out what the problem was, and then to get them to negate the late fees. It brought me to tears a few times. So, keep that on your radar too !

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

That's terrible. The city of all people should know about the duplicate street names, since they chose them.

Don't tax bills, and the stubs you mail in, generally include a lot number which unambiguously identifies your property?

[ron_newman]

Any news on this today?