Butkovitz: Sheriff sale buyers receiving old owners’ water bills

Buy a sheriff sale property in the last few years? City Controller Alan Butkovitz says 669 of those sales in Fiscal Year 2009 – about 20 percent – are still experiencing a water bill error.

A flaw in the Water Revenue Bureau billing system is charging the property buyers for the previous owners’ water bills. Correcting the mistake cost about $2.5 million. What’s more, the billing flaw isn’t the WRB’s first. The system in place is the fifth attempt to fix the system since 2007.