SAN ANTONIO — A local apartment complex is in some hot water with San Antonio Water System (SAWS) over a huge past-due bill.
SAWS officials said they’ve placed its first municipal utility lien on Oaks on Bandera Apartments, which owes more than $93,000 on past-due balances across three services lines, the utility said. The complex is managed by Eddleton Family Investments LLC).
This new lien authority, which was authorized by statute and granted by San Antonio’s City Council earlier this year, was put in place to try and get landlords to pay their bills and ultimately avoid utility disconnections that impact their tenants.
The lien is a legal claim on the property that would allow SAWS to recuperate some of the debt if the complex is sold.
SAWS can also disconnect water service due to nonpayment. A disconnection would also result in an automatic violation of the city’s Proactive Apartment Inspections Program.
SAWS currently has more than 6,100 apartment accounts, 358 are eligible for disconnection because their bills are more than 60 days past due, the utility said. Those accounts owe a combined past-due amount of more than $2.6 million.