Philly Landlords Responsible For Unpaid Gas Bills

Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writer-- "The city has hired an outside lawyer to defend itself from a federal class-action lawsuit alleging its policy of filing liens against landlords for their tenants' delinquent utility bills violates due process... The landlords can keep the gas bill in their own name and pass the cost on to their tenants in a monthly bill.."

CommentaryThis is not too dissimilar to landlords being ultimately responsible for the municipal owned water company bills on their properties in this area. In Philly PGW is owned by the city itself unlike the investor owned gas companies in the Lehigh Valley.

Now one would think PGW being owned by the city would be cheaper then the price I now pay to a investor owned company. That's not the case. Currently PGW's residential price to compare is $.69067 per Ccf . My price to compare on my last bill from UGI was $.66159. If I was paying for gas last February to PGW instead of UGI it would have cost me $10.15 more. Seems kind of screwed up considering landlords in Philly have been forced to pony up for unpaid bills and you'd think being city owned gas would be cheaper. Something UGI does not have the advantage of.

Essentially landlords in Philly have become unpaid collection agents for the publicly owned utility. About the only hope rental property owners have is that the city will sell PGW.

It's not that there isn't an interested buyer. According to NBC 10 as of July 14th, 2014 "Energy Co. Still Wants to Buy PGW" for around $1.86 billion. The city is seriously considering it in hopes of having around $500 million left over to put towards the city's underfunded pension obligations.

I'm sure for landlords that day can't come soon enough. It also would save both the city and landlords the costs of a protracted legal battle with the current class action suit. Although I'm fairly certain natural gas customers will only see the price going up even higher then they are now. For them it a lose/lose situation no matter the outcome.

In addition to the high cost to park and live in Philadelphia there is..* The city's 3.924% tax on residents wages,
* The soon to be $2 a pack cigarette tax,
* A school tax of 3.924% on unearned income,
* It's 1.34% real estate taxes,
* 4% reality transfer tax,
* It's own 2% city sales tax
* It's water rates due to go up 17.6% over the next 3 years (currently about $67 a month- More then double what I pay)..


So What Have We Learned Kids?
(1) Just because a bunch of people are packed together in a dense urban area doesn't mean things will be either cheaper or more efficient. No matter how large the money pool per square block is.

(2) Investor owned companies apparently can provide cheaper utilities and still manage to turn a profit. PGW is in the hole for around $1.3 billion. See above after sale $500 million left

(3) You need to earn a boatload of money if you want the so-called convenience and quality of life Philadelphia claims to offer it's urban dwellers.

(4) Perhaps we've even learned why the highways are clogged going in and out of Philadelphia everyday!


In Conclusion
While it seems like local governments should be able to provide services like water, gas, trash removal, etc. cheaper, it hasn't panned out. Local government authorities have been given the unfair advantage by not having to compete to provide these services. This coupled with the legal authority to place liens on properties has not benefited it's citizens historically. It's a shame it hasn't because for-profit businesses will step in and do it cheaper for a while, but eventually they too will take advantage.

(1) There's little a person can do other then move to another area and commute from where commercial utilities don't have the ready option of putting liens on homeowners and are cheaper.(2) Bend over and take it.

Further Information:
Philadelphia's "Landlord Cooperation Program"
"Property owners who provide full and complete cooperation and compliance
with LCP are not subjected to the placement of liens on registered properties"