Water Shutoffs Major Problem For Miami Renters w/ Landlords In F'closure; County To Vote On Rule Change Allowing Tenants' Payments To Restore Service

In Miami, Florida, The Miami Herald reports:

• Whenever Michel Joseph wants to shower, cook or use the bathroom, he has to leave his Little Haiti apartment and drop in on a neighbor who has running water. Water has not run in Joseph’s derelict apartment since his landlord abandoned the four-unit building to foreclosure, and skipped town in November.
• The landlord’s absence led to a water shutoff, and for the past four months, Joseph has not been able to turn it back on because of a long-standing rule at the Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department.
• That rule — which restricts renters from re-opening a closed account — has come under increased scrutiny as more landlords have fallen prey to the foreclosure crisis, some leaving tenants without basic utilities.(1)
• “The tenants have become the hidden victims of the foreclosure crisis,” said Purvi Shah, a Florida Legal Services(2) attorney who defends tenants of foreclosed properties. “There are hundreds of tenants in Miami-Dade County living in really serious conditions.”

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• For Shah’s team at Florida Legal Services, getting to this point has been a long, difficult battle. Her team defends tenants going through foreclosure, and has litigated issues like water and electricity shutoffs, illegal evictions, tenant intimidation and landlord abandonment. Of the various issues that tenants face during foreclosure, water shutoff has been the most problematic, Shah said.

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• Water service was discontinued at Hilda Bustos’ North Miami-Dade rental last year before Legal Aid lawyers filed suit in order to force the landlord to pay the bill. However, after the property went into foreclosure, the bank repossessed it and shut off the water, sparking another lawsuit from Legal Aid. The water was eventually turned back on, but tenant advocates do not have the resources to litigate against every landlord that abandons a property, Shah said.
• In the past three years, more than 400 multi-family properties have had water service discontinued because a landlord defaulted on payments, county statistics show. Most of these properties have less than 15 units.

For the story, see Collateral damage: Tenants of foreclosed properties (Tenants of properties in foreclosure have to deal with water shutoffs, landlord disappearances and sudden evictions, all side effects of South Florida’s mortgage crisis).

(1) According to the story, the Miami-Dade County Infrastructure and Land Use Committee voted to create a bridge account program that would allow tenants to open a temporary Water & Sewer account earlier this month. The full county commission is set to vote on the bridge account next month. Tenants in the property would have to pay a deposit equal to 2.5 times the average water bill to set up the account and can only keep it open for six months. Broward County does not have a tenant payment program.

(2) Florida Legal Services (FLS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1973 to provide civil legal assistance to indigent persons who would not otherwise have the means to obtain a lawyer. A statewide support center, FLS fulfills its mission primarily by working with local legal aid and legal service programs to improve their ability to provide legal assistance to those in need in their communities.