When a city provides trash pickup, the homeowner is supposed to receive a bill for it in some form. In theory. One homeowner in California received a $21 monthly bill from the city, and he assumed that this included trash pickup. One shouldn’t assume that a bill includes anything, it turns out.

After two years of homeownership, he suddenly received a $807 bill from the city for all of the trash pickup that it didn’t bill him for for the whole period. As a first-time homeowner, he didn’t have past bills from the same city to compare the bills he was receiving to, and didn’t know that he was supposed to be receiving a trash bill.

He turned to CBS Sacramento’s problem-solving team, and they talked to the forgetful city, Elk Grove. A representative explained that this viewer wasn’t alone in having billing issues: they recently audited trash bills, and found that about sixty local households had problems with their bills.

The city also reserves the right to back bill for up to three years, but that could mean dropping four-figure trash pickup bills in taxpayers’ mailboxes and expecting them to be paid immediately.

This story has a happy ending, which may have been because he called in a local TV news station. The city agreed to work out a payment plan for him, and he will have another two years to pay back the $807 under his very careful budget.

Call Kurtis: City Forgets to Bill for Trash for 2 Years; Sends Large Bill [CBS Sacramento]

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