Water Bill

[micky]

I live in a small townhouse community in suburban Baltimore. We buy our water from Baltimore.

You may have heard that Baltimore City got ransomware and they decided not to pay. They've gotten almost all of their services back up (based on backups I guess but I haven't been following it.

But we have not been getting our water bill. Unlike any other place I know of, we get one bill for the whole n'hood and split it evenly in about 100 pieces.

We've been charging $35 for water, but it's nore than that now, people are sure, but how much, no one knows.

THE PLAN IS for the HOA to not bill the homeowners for water until we ourselves get a bill. If we get a bill for prior months, to bill them for that too, when we get it.

Good plan? Why and why not? What might be a better plan?

[Ed Pawlowski]

When you have that many people, no matter what you do, someone with bitch about it. I would though, put out a letter explaining it. Let them know the bill could end up more than usual but it would cover more months.

I'm glad the city had the balls not to pay. You'd think a big business would have safeguards in place for a rescue if the computer turned to shit one day. If no one paid, no one would bother asking.

[gfretwell]

Water tends to be a fairly steady expense. I think I would bill all of the owners based on an average of old bills so they don't get slammed with a huge bill by surprise. I know it boggles the mind but a lot of people do not understand saving "found" money and they have been spending that water bill money all along. Some may not be able to come up with a grand or whatever it might end up being when the City of Bulletmore gets around to sending you a bill.

[Clare Snyder]

Collect as usual and deposit in a "trust account" until you get the bill. If you never get the back billing apply to future bills.

[micky]

I'll get back to you on this, maybe in a post not specificially to you.

I was out of the country when this happened and a few weeks afterwards so by the time I got back it wasn't much in the news. But, I think I read it costs much more in extra labor not to pay than to pay. I know I read that in the first few days they had to use the personal email accounts of employees to get things done. And no online tax paying, and even in person, I suppose they couldn't enter it into t he computer. Just had to write it down and enter it later. Extra labor charges or things not done. And other such problems.

I don't know if it the decision not to pay was controversial. Well, I'm sure it was but how much I don't know. I could google but not tonight.

This happened in April or May and I gather we've gotten some little bills for water. I didn't understand if they said 147 dollars or maybe

1470, but 147 split 100 ways is not much. Esp. if the HOA bill should be 4000 a month.

[trader_4]

+1

Seems obvious to me. More than not understanding, there are people just living off SS or whatever and they may forget about the non-existent bill, spend the money and then not have it. More inexplicable was a request we got one time from some lady who was an owner in the condo complex when I was president. She wanted her monthly maintenance payment which might have been $150 at the time to be due on a date different from everyone else, because she was on a fixed income. The board felt sorry for her, I couldn't understand it. I can understand and have worked with people who are having some temporary problems, but to say you can only pay on a date of your choosing forever? And the issue for the mgt company is they would now have a different rule, different date for one owner and have to remember and keep track of that.

[Ed Pawlowski]

The fixed income thing is BS. Most of my working career my income was fixed too, though more than SS. Unless you have variable overtime, that applies to most of us. I understand the first month may have been a problem but once resolved, every month is the same, so you can work with it.

[Ralph Mowery]

I never could get it in my head what fixed income really meant.

As mentioned most work jobs that the money comes in all the same each pay period. Some get even less if they miss a day of work. In my working years every job I had paid by the hour. If you were sick or just took a day off, you did not get paid for those days.

After being retired I get SS and a pension every month and do not have to worry about getting sick or having to take a day off without pay.

I will be getting more money next year as I have to take a RMD out of the IRA . Getting senior discounts at places. Everything paid for, so have more money now to 'blow' on things that I ever did during the working years.

God has looked out for my health. Sofar no major issues. So no big medical bills.

[micky]

Yes, I've thought about that too. My income was always fixed except when I was a Fuller Brush man.

Or work on commission/tips.

I guess they don't want to say they don't have much income. Even that, what someone doesn't have, is a euphemism. More straightforward is, "I have little money."

[invalid unparseable]

Fixed income for many may be pensions or anything else that does not keep pace with inflation. You might get more SS every year but it does not keep pace with inflation.

For op, it sounds like a good idea to keep paying before the bill water bill comes in because many people, maybe most, do not know how to budget or live within their means and cannot take an unexpected bill.

[micky]

Then you didn't have a fixed income. It could go lower!

Me too. For a while I thought I was poor. Looked into reverse mortgages, annuities for myself. But I see that I'm not eating into my savings fast enough to spend all of it in my lifetime (Unless I get very sick or want to buy a verrry big home.)

Now I have sort of the other problem. After a lifetime of being thrifty, I'd like to spend more money, but I don't known how. They don't make the kind of car I want (a '65 Buick or Cadilllac convertible.) so I can't spend it on a new car. I don't want to buy a '65 and worry about damaging it. I could go out to eat more, but I usually watch tv when I eat. Can't do that at restaurant s. I could buy more expesive food at the grocery, but I think I have to drive farther to get to a fancy grocery, and even that will only account for

500 or 1000 dollars a year.

[gfretwell]

SS is not a fixed income but a lot, if not all, defined benefit plans are. Will SS you get regular adjustments for inflation. These days that is rare to non existent for pension plans. As long as inflation is fairly low that is not a huge issue but that is going to change and your whole pension, might not pay your utility bills.

[Rod Speed]

While I did have to be careful early on, I have for most of the time been paid rather more than it was costing me, enough to be able to run a light aircraft etc too.

Now I have realised that I am never going to spend what I have accumulated before I die even if I live to 100.

Don't have that problem. Even when I had a heart attack the only cost was a couple of newspapers to read in hospital. Didn't have to pay for the stent or the air ambulance to the state capital where they did the stent.

[Ralph Mowery]

Just like where I worked. For the first 10 years we got good raises, then the business got bad. Some years we did not even get a raise, some years we just got a small lump sum that was not even in pace with inflation.

Ok on the pensions. That can be a fixed source of income. The one our company had never goes up year to year so we loose out to inflation.

[invalid unparseable]

I've been collecting my pension for 26 years. Maybe 20 years ago they gave everybody a $40/month increase. But about the same time, where they had been paying full healthcare they made us pay for half of any increase. Later the percentage went up so in reality the pension went down.

Government retirees get increases every year. A friend that worked for the county was complaining about his pension but said it went up about

3% a year.

I also recall in the Obama years, SS went up very slightly but Medicare deductible was increased to bring us seniors a net loss for that year.

[Clare Snyder]

My term is "limitted income" - I can still go out and take on a job to add a bit to the kitty - at least for a few more years - but even that is "limitted".

[Clare Snyder]

I went 27 years with no increase in pay. Went from being well paid for the job to being grossly under-paid.

[trader_4]

If that's true, why hasn't your super hero, Trump fixed it?

[Anonymous]

I look at it as "fixed" in the sense that I have no control re Social Security and pension benefit amounts. I can't ask for a raise, get a promotion, change "employer". And any COLAs don't begin to cover cost increases.

And over age 65, due to age discrimination in hiring, we can't get hired to any meaningful work if we tried.

I was out of work at age 54, and most "kids" doing hiring just could not see "hiring their father" :-(

[Ralph Mowery]

I don't need to worry about the SS as he did 'fix' my IRA. It has gone way up more than under your hero Obama.