Canton, Ohio Might Hire Debt Collectors To Recoup $4 Million In Unpaid Water, Sewer Bills

The city of Canton, Ohio might be giving the debt-collection industry some rather good business soon.

The Canton city council will vote Monday on whether to enter into a two-year partnership with Capital Recovery Systems, a debt collection agency based in Columbus, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository.

The city is trying to recoup about $4 million in unpaid water and sewer bills, among other debts. Capital Recovery Systems would get to keep 23 percent of the debt it collects.

Capital Recovery Systems was the object of some public ire in 2010 when it mistakenly sent out collection notices for unpaid municipal fines to several thousand people. The company works for multiple levels of government in numerous states.

The proposal speaks to the severity of the situation in Canton -- a former steel and iron capital that was named one of the most miserable cities in America a couple of years ago. Analysts say the city may not recover from the economic downturn until after 2021. Today, unemployment in the greater Canton area is 8.8 percent, more than half a percentage point above the national average.

Canton is far from the only city that's been struggling since the recession hit, adding to a long list of potential debt-collection clients. At the personal level, more and more Americans are having trouble just covering their basic living expenses, providing no end of work for recovery agencies. Those struggles have created a striking reality: Today, roughly one in seven Americans has had some kind of encounter with a debt collector, up from one in 14 in the year 2000, according to the blog Naked Capitalism.

At the same time, there's been a rising trend of unscrupulous and abusive practices among debt collectors, according to a recent study from Marketdata Enterprises. Collection agents have been harassing people over Facebook, showing up at the hospital to visit patients, and making vulgar threats to people who may or may not actually owe money. Consumer complaints about debt collectors reached an all-time high in 2011, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Comments

[FitzDebt]

01:48 PM on 06/05/2012

There better off selling there defaulted receivables to the debt industry!

Jeffery Hartman | President
Fitzgerald Debt Acquisitions, LLC™
http://www.fitzdebt.com

[John Tutle]

08:01 AM on 05/01/2012

Whaever the reason, not paying for water and sewer services falls into the "theft of services" category and thus the municipality has every right to take reasonable steps to collect. The cost of these services will otherwise have to be paid for by raising the rates on the paying users, which is an indirect tax.

The collection agency will make several collection attempts, and then depending on how the utility ordinance in the municiaplity is written, the municipality may file a lien on the property regardless of whether it is a rental or not. The next time the property is sold the lien will have to be satistied and a release of lien signed by the municipality.

Eventually, the municipality will get their money, many municipalities follow this procedure. This is nothing new.

[outtopastur]

08:29 AM on 05/01/2012

"Theft of services"?

Sorry, but the collection of debts are civil and not criminal matters.

Thanks for playing.

[blndgenie]

12:25 PM on 05/01/2012

their city council unanimously approved hiring the collection agency. Failure to pay for services used will be an easy judgment to get, and eventually most of these people will pay either with liens on their property or via wage attachment.

[Jameslyons]

10:33 PM on 04/30/2012

Scum.

Why is it ok to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on war, to spend billions on bailing out for-profit banking institutes, and at the same time spend near nothing on the real people that make the economy work?

I'm so disgusted by our political system and the gross financial abuse seen by the US Government. Corporations are scum, but their private. The real travesty is that in a democratic presidency, the US Government supports financial predators and does nothing for infrastructure.

4 million dollars? Funny, if the US paid the bill they could still give Afghanistan $99,996,000,000

[mbo2]

11:43 AM on 05/01/2012

uhhh, what does this have to do with "infrastructure"???

the Canton water system is fine in terms of infrastructure - but if people do not pay for their water or sewer services it's got nothing to do with an interstate bridge falling down

jeesh

[stargazer13]

01:22 PM on 04/30/2012

bail out,s for all :)

tax payer money is used to bail out banks

but it seems it is not to be used to bail out tax payer,s

why is that ?? any one !!

[stargazer13]

01:18 PM on 04/30/2012

ever heard the term

ya can;t get blood from a turnip

well were all turnips now :)

so to speak

every citizens who be affected should write a letter stating that due to job loss and or low wages we the citizens request a bail out !!

now what was it the banks said to our elected when they had their collective hands out begging for bail out !!

we must use this line also for it worked out so well for the banks did it not !!!

[blndgenie]

03:38 PM on 04/30/2012

the collection will simply file and receive a judgment and lien against the delinquent persons. Those btw do not go away.

[stargazer13]

03:59 PM on 04/30/2012

again to create stress and suffering of the tax payers that is all !

[ruolivert]

06:56 PM on 04/30/2012

In other words debt slavery for water and sewage.

[lofttypeofaview]

03:40 PM on 04/30/2012

Exactly they are hiring debt collectors to collect debt for necessities that people can't afford. If the crisis has become so dire that people can't even afford necessities, they won't be paid because no one is going to pay a water bill, since they need the money for food instead. This is a waste of time/money.

[authorized-user]

12:53 PM on 04/30/2012

Is this city in Bohner's district?

[VPerry24]

12:41 PM on 04/30/2012

If people don't have money, no job, guess what, how are they going to pay the water bill?
Bail them out like they did the banks, what is good for one should be good for all, just saying.

[blndgenie]

12:48 PM on 04/30/2012

if its big enough the collection agency will simply get liens filed on the property for the city, or get wage attachment if they're employed.

[tosc]

12:59 PM on 04/30/2012

lol then the city will be responsible for a large amount of worthless real estate...lol. see when property values take a dive..threatening to take someone's home that is underwater is really not a threat, but a blessing...lol then the house is actually worth something.

[lofttypeofaview]

03:42 PM on 04/30/2012

If these people can't afford necessities, they most likely don't have a home or job.

[iam99]

12:07 PM on 04/30/2012

The plundered people don't have the money anymore so it doesn't matter what is done for collection of what is no longer held.

[Dana1982]

11:36 AM on 04/30/2012

As they should. Anyone not paying their fair share of their utilities raises the price for everyone who does.

[portfolio]

12:16 PM on 04/30/2012

This isn't debt from people still using services.

This is debt from people who had their utilities shut off and probably were foreclosed on.

My guess is most of these people have moved on to greener pastures.

I also suspect that this move isn't going to bring in a lot of money.

[Dana1982]

12:28 PM on 04/30/2012

Doesn't matter. If people owe on their bills to the government utilities, they should be responsible for payment just like they are responsible for their taxes.

[mbo2]

11:47 AM on 05/01/2012

yep, moving on and going somewhere else to leech off those paying their bills

[VPerry24]

12:43 PM on 04/30/2012

I don't see it that way. I question why we have to pay 12 cents for kwh when Germany capped theirs at 3 cents? Do we only have incompetent people, but then again their CEOs don't get let go with a huge parachute package either like our TXU President who received 28 million dollars worth!

[stargazer13]

11:21 AM on 04/30/2012

Time to Audit there books

with our infrastructure in such sad shape water waste electrical roads bridges

I believe funds have been mismanaged for well over 30 years :(

[VPerry24]

12:43 PM on 04/30/2012

LOL I did say "incompetent."

[OnePerson OneVote]

11:21 AM on 04/30/2012

Why wouldn't local government just create a bank, take local deposits, then create more money for the city through the illegal fractional reserve banking system? Ahh, banks can only create money, not local governments short on cash. Nice system.