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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday February 27 2014, @12:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the This-sounds-like-a-job-for-Florida-Man dept.

Xerxes writes:

"A Florida woman who has been living off the grid has had her home declared 'Unsanitary' and has until March to connect her off-the-grid home to the city water system, or face eviction."

[ED Note: Ordinances such as this are not uncommon. My own father once had a property condemned on this basis while he was in the midst of a billing dispute with a utility.]

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by cmn32480 on Thursday February 27 2014, @02:49AM

    by cmn32480 (443) <reversethis-{moc.liamg} {ta} {08423nmc}> on Thursday February 27 2014, @02:49AM (#7731) Journal

    From TFA:

    "In court, city officials argued that Speronis used city-owned drains for waste disposal but didn't pay for the service. The city capped her sewer in response, which stopped Speronis from using the city's wastewater management system."

    She was using the city sewer (for free), and since it got capped, she has no way to get rid of the sewage. She SHOULD be required to either put in a real septic system, or put her house on the grid for water and sewer. Why should she be able to use for free what the rest of us pay to maintain?

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by SixGunMojo on Thursday February 27 2014, @04:56AM

    by SixGunMojo (509) on Thursday February 27 2014, @04:56AM (#7791)

    She was using the city sewer (for free), and since it got capped, she has no way to get rid of the sewage. She SHOULD be required to either put in a real septic system, or put her house on the grid for water and sewer. Why should she be able to use for free what the rest of us pay to maintain?

    I don't how they bill water and sewage where she lives but my parents (who live just north of Orlando) have either separate bills or their water bill is broken down into two parts (don't remember which though). I don't see why it would be difficult to charge her a nominal fee for using just sewage. Except, you know, government. Thankfully for me, I have since learned the joys of living in a house with well and septic, which means no water or sewage bill period. If I could afford it I would put solar panels all over my roof and tell the electric company to go screw themselves.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TheRaven on Thursday February 27 2014, @01:39PM

      by TheRaven (270) on Thursday February 27 2014, @01:39PM (#7939) Journal
      It's difficult to measure sewer usage, so the typical way of billing for it is some constant multiplied by the amount of water that you use. If you're getting your water from somewhere else, then this doesn't work. Having a different billing mechanism for a single customer is likely to be very expensive.
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Thursday February 27 2014, @06:12AM

    by edIII (791) on Thursday February 27 2014, @06:12AM (#7816)

    A legal argument by the city in court is not exactly what I would call a fact. They lie. Often.

    I would say you are correct if that was true, but from what I understand she has a composting system. Their argument may be as ridiculous as rainwater coming off her property, into the street, and into the sewers. Therefore, she is using the sewer.

    There is an awful lot of precedence in which utilities fight to maintain revenue simply because they wish to provide a disincentive to the process by always maintaining that cost, especially if not used.

    They argued in my area that people had to be connected to the power grid and charged for access by saying that they were forced to spend money on infrastructure that needed to be compensated.

    I'm probably biased. I fought the utilities when they tried slapping me with the previous tenants bill on a lease. After awhile in court I got all my deposits and money back from all parties, but was forced to go through the hassle of moving all my stuff in just to find myself without water. They tried the route of getting me evicted by saying it wasn't sanitary conditions. Thankfully, I was not the property owner, so I could walk away while sticking it in the utilities ass. I cost them money instead and never broke.

    That's why I have such a hard time believing your quote knowing they have the same entitlement attitude organized crime does when shifting a marker onto a relative when somebody "has an accident".

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