Old North News

When Melinda Berryman bought a vacant lot, she assumed she would need to pay a property tax, but not for other city services. 

But, the Harnett Regional Water company charged her a minimum fee, plus late fees, that piled up to $5,900 before the utility and landowner resolved the matter.

"I realized maybe five years into owning the property that I had received a bill, and the bill said that I owed for water,” Berryman said in a WTVD report. "I actually thought that it was a mistake that I was being sent the bill -- that it was an error." 

Although there was no home on the lot, and Berryman never signed up for water or sewer services, she was charged $35.00, plus a $10.00, late fee since she never paid the bill from Harnett Regional Water.

This perplexed her. 

"I had zero water usage -- zero sewer usage,” she said. “No water, not one drop of Harnett County water could I have used from this property or being consumed." 

The bill was finally turned over to a collections agency, and Berryman disputed it.

The water company’s explanation is that a county ordinance says, “the owner of a property is to be charged a minimum monthly water/sewer fee whether water is used or not during that month,” the utility company said.

“This is a dry tap/availability fee bill to each service to have the services available for use,” the water provider continued, “Not knowing the intentions of the customer for the property, the account continued to be billed. We have reached out to our customer several times by mail to the address listed below and to my knowledge she has not contacted our office directly. She has only contacted the collection agency.”

After the two sides finally came together, they were able to come to terms.