Byko: City bills dead man for 9 years

FOR NINE YEARS, every few months, he received a bill from the Water Revenue Bureau that eventually reached $913.22.

For nine years, Mr. White sent back the unopened bill, mailed to a condo he bought at an estate sale. (Mr. White is not his real name. He asked for anonymity because he is unemployed and is afraid that having his name on the Internet could hurt his prospects.)

White was pretty sure his condo never used Philadelphia water, because it is located in Jenkintown. He was pretty sure the previous owner, now deceased, also never used Philadelphia water in the Jenkintown condo. I mean, how could he?

There is an explanation. Be patient.

The bills arrived as regularly as the seasons, addressed to the previous owner, Bernard Sokolick. That he was deceased did not stop the U.S. Postal Service from its appointed rounds. Each time he got a billing envelope, White says, he returned it with "Deceased, return to sender" written on it, information that seemed not to register on either the post office or the bureau.

For nine years it went on. Finally, a few days back, White gave me a call, because he remembered I had done several columns about people who had problems with the Water Revenue Bureau.

White asked if I had any idea why this was happening, and at first I thought there might have been a lien against the estate. I didn't see how that could transfer to him, but who knows? My job is to ask questions of the right people.

White had not contacted the bureau, figuring that if he just kept sending the bills back, unopened, marked "deceased," the bureau would get the idea.

For nine years, that didn't work.

I gave White the customer hotline number, and suggested he call and get back to me. (If you are having a water-related problem, the number is 215-685-6300.)

White called, left a message, and was called back in less than 20 minutes, which was pretty good. For a bureaucracy, I mean. The bureau gave him permission to open the envelope, something he'd never done before.

He learned that the bill was for service to an address on Wayne Avenue in Germantown, not his property in Jenkintown.

The previous owner of White's condo apparently owned the Germantown property, which is why the bill was sent to the condo's address.

When he spoke to a bureau staffer, White was told he would no longer be receiving water bills, which would now be sent to the Wayne Avenue address.

"I repeated to the person that the billee was dead, but they said bills would be sent to Wayne Avenue. Well, good luck with that," White told me.

"Mr. Sokolick was the owner of record for the Wayne Avenue property, with a Jenkintown location as his off-site mailing address," I was told by Vicki Riley, speaking on behalf of Deputy Revenue Commissioner Michelle Bethel.

(The Water Department provides water and services. The Water Revenue Bureau does the billing and collection. Both are under the Department of Revenue.)

If bills are sent to Wayne Avenue instead of Jenkintown, the bureau won't get a response.

The Wayne Avenue address is a vacant lot.

A vacant lot can generate a water bill?

The billing is for "storm-water charges," Riley says.

As I reported in 2014, the "storm-water charge" pays for the cost of treating rainwater that drains into the sewer system. Until 2010, the cost was tucked into the water service charge, then it was billed separately.

So that's how a vacant property can get a water bill. Now, how about billing a deceased person?

"When updating ownership names in our billing system, we check the Office of Property Assessment's website," says Riley. In this case, the bureau "did not find any updated ownership information. In addition, no updates had been processed in the deeding system."

That may be another problem I can look into.

But not today.

stubyko@phillynews.com

215-854-5977 @StuBykofsky

Blog: ph.ly/Byko

Columns: ph.ly/StuBykofsky