Water line warranty plan demise hurts many
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The owner of the property at 2268 Whited Street in Brookline, Andrew Fiscante, faces a $6,015 lien for work that hasn't been completed.
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The collapse of Pittsburgh's $5-a-month water and sewer line warranty program is resulting in thousands of dollars in liens against some property owners.
The liens are the latest ripple from the capsized 2009 deal between the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and Wilkinsburg-based Utility Line Security that generated lawsuits and scrutiny of relationships between the city's former water boss and the vendor's principals.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. found in March that the program violated a law preventing public authorities from competing with private businesses, and that ruling drove ULS into bankruptcy.
Now plumbing companies that did work for ULS but haven't been paid for it are taking their bills both to bankruptcy court and to property owners.
One person facing a big claim is Andrew Fiscante, an Oakdale man who bought a Brookline house in November and rented it out. Not long after, Terry's Plumbing, of Ross, told him it would disconnect the home's downspouts from the sewer system at ULS's expense.
Terry's Plumbing began the work in February, pledging to finish it when the weather improved. But when ULS went bankrupt, Mr. Fiscante's temporarily patched driveway and dug-up front lawn were caught in limbo.
"There's a trench in [the driveway]. It's a trip-and-fall hazard," and impossible to shovel in winter, he said Friday. "There's a big hole in the front yard with a big tube sticking out of it."
He called ULS in July and was assured that the driveway and yard would be fixed, but it wasn't. In August, Terry's Plumbing filed a lien against his property for $6,015, meaning the property can't be sold unless the debt is paid.
"How's that even legal, when there's no contract [between him and Terry's Plumbing]?" Mr. Fiscante asked.
Terry's Plumbing has filed eight such liens, in amounts ranging up to nearly $10,000.
Attorney Michael Shiner, who represents Terry's Plumbing, said the company had to file the liens within six months of doing the work to protect its rights. He said that ULS owes the small plumbing company around $175,000 for labor, material, supplies and permit fees it paid, and the company owner has had to borrow money to keep his business afloat.
"Before the whole ULS scheme," Mr. Shiner said, "if there was a line that broke and the homeowner didn't repair it, the Water and Sewer Authority went and repaired it, and they would file liens against the homeowners" to collect the cost. Terry's Plumbing is essentially doing the same thing, he said, in hopes that it will prompt the authority to "realize the error of their ways" and pay the plumbers some of what they're owed.
First Published September 17, 2011 12:00 am
