Beginning July 1, 2024, the Town of Westlake will start charging fees for those who are late paying their utility bills. This was prompted by your Town Council passing an ordinance during our June 3, 2024 meeting. The ordinance was passed due to a growing balance of unpaid bills Town-wide. In fact, 21% of the average monthly outstanding revenue is delinquent on any given month. That equates to more than $141,000 in unpaid bills last year alone.
Council and Town staff felt it was essential to start charging the late fees due to aging infrastructure that desperately needs those funds. If the bills aren’t paid, that would mean rates would have to be raised for all customers, including those who do submit their payments on time. That’s a scenario everyone wants to avoid.
Town staff identified three categories of water customers and how the late fees would apply to each. They include residential, commercial, and temporary. Temporary refers to builders and developers. A breakdown of the costs for each category can be found here. Failure to pay the bills and late fees would result in water service being cut off. The next step would be to turn the matter over to a collection agency. It's important to note that the late fees WILL NOT be retroactive for past unpaid bills, only those starting on July 1, 2024.
One of the significant reasons for non-payment is that many customers’ credit cards expire and aren’t updated. So when it comes time to auto draft from the card, it’s no longer valid. That’s why staff recommends you set up your account to autdraft from your banking account instead of your credit card. That will eliminate the need to update your account info when your credit card expires. And there’s no fee to sign up through your bank account. You can find the bank auto draft information on our website.
We understand you may have a lot of questions. That’s why we’ve uploaded the entire presentation to Council to our website. You can find a complete breakdown of how much the late fees are, when they’re assessed, as well as steps to resolve the issue. If that doesn’t answer all your questions, you can email our Utility and Facility Coordinator, Dianna Orender.
We appreciate your help and believe this is the best way to solve an issue that could result in costly rate hikes in the future. Thank you!