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Cloverdale property owner urges city to notify owners of major water leaks
Summary
At the March 12 Cloverdale City Council meeting a property owner, Charlotte Chancellor, asked the council to require the water department to notify property owners of major leaks after she said she paid $7,000 in repairs without ever receiving notice.
Charlotte Chancellor, a property owner at 310 Elbridge Avenue, told the Cloverdale City Council on March 12 that she was not notified by the water department when a long-running leak developed at a rental property and that she later paid about $7,000 for repairs.
Chancellor said the tenant had the water account in his name and later changed it to another person. “I was never notified. I would have fixed it immediately,” she said at the meeting, adding that the department sent multiple notices to the account holder at the property address rather than to her as the owner.
The issue matters, Chancellor told the council, because Cloverdale’s code gives the city the authority to place a lien against property for unpaid water charges “after due notification has been given to the owner of the real property,” and she said she never received such notice. At the meeting she read an on-record citation she said applies in these cases: “section 13… Failure to pay for water furnished to property either owned or rented or leased to the customer of record shall constitute a lien against the subject real property after due notification has been given to the owner of the real property.”
Mayor Todd Lands and other council members asked clarifying questions under the public-comment rules; the council did not take action during the meeting but indicated staff could follow up. Lands noted the council is limited during public comment to asking clarifying questions rather than debating policy on the spot.
Chancellor asked the council to consider a change to water-department practice so property owners are notified immediately when a major leak is discovered, saying she would have repaired the leak sooner and sought repayment from the tenant had she known. She also described construction in some Cloverdale cottages that makes leak detection difficult without replacing a whole line.
No formal council action or vote was recorded during the public-comment period on this item; the council did not adopt an immediate ordinance or resolution at the meeting.
