by Timothy Rutt
Two disabled Altadena women in danger of getting their water cut off will likely come to some accommodation with Lincoln Avenue Water Co, but the utility‘s general manager warned the Altadena town council that there was a growing problem with unlawfully occupied homes on the west side of town.
Bob Hayward, general manager for the Lincoln Avenue Water Company, told the Altadena Town Council Tuesday that there appeared to be an organized effort to remove “For Sale” signs from vacant property and illegally offer them as rental units. Unlawful occupation -- where a non-owner takes control of a vacant or foreclosed home and rents it out to an unsuspecting tenant -- is a growing problem in their service area, Hayward said.
Hayward said that a foreclosed, vacant property will usually still have utilities running, to keep up the lawn and make a it look occupied.
“The problem is twofold,” Hayward told the council Tuesday night. By the time the water company is aware of the occupancy, the tenants have been living there for some time and feel they have a legitimate right to be on the property, even though there’s been no accommodation for paying utilities, Hayward said. When the legal owners request that water service be shut off, tenants have a hard time coming up with a standard deposit to establish water service.
Hayward was challenged by Marjorie McNary and Mary O’Connor, two disabled women who are renting a home and guest house on Casitas Avenue. Hayward told Altadenablog last week that the owner of their property requested that the water be shut off, and that the company would require a $500 deposit to restore service. Both women have said that they don’t have the funds to make that deposit. The water was shut off last week at the request of the property owner, and then restored after political pressure.
Water was to be shut off again Tuesday afternoon, but Hayward said the water company agreed to another 24 hours to allow the women to come up with the deposit.
After the meeting, O’Connor said that the women had only managed to get $100 together for a deposit, but $150 was donated to them during the course of the evening. O’Connor said that Hayward agreed to keep the water on as long as the remaining $250 deposit was paid next month.
Hayward said that Lincoln Avenue Water has 4,500 customers, and “month in and month out we have 1,500 customers -- almost 30% -- have a problem paying their water bill in a timely manner.” Most are able to make an arrangement to keep their water service on, but some have no means of paying the water bill at all, and “it will be a disservice to those who do pay their water bill” to let them slide.
We reported last week that McNary and O’Connor were renting the property from someone who apparently did not represent the legal owner, which has instigated eviction proceedings. Altadena Sheriff Capt. Steven McLean told the council Tuesday night that unlawful occupancy was “starting to happen” in Altadena, and that the two women’s case was being investigated as a fraud.
