In July '20, we sold a house in a major metro area. I had a 'delinquent' water bill with the city (more on that later) that I was aware of. I scanned the closing documents and it says 'Seller agrees that there are no unpaid bills or debts from improvements, repairs, etc' and no undisclosed liens

The water bill has been a fight since I bought the place. They didn't shut off service during rehab like they (verbally) said they would so the water bill continued to accrue at the full rate. Then, they let a couple years of debt accrue without telling me, no bills in the mailbox, etc. etc. They they started wanting their money but REFUSED partial payments to restore the debt. "In full or nothing." I was told. I was told that they wouldn't even ACCEPT partial payments (over the phone).

In May '19 we got a water bill that says 'balance due: $ZERO. A phone call reveals that they sent it to collections. Fine by me. We started to pay the bills after that as we were legitimately using water since the rehab was complete, but they were applying the money to the old debt, so I stopped paying them again and we sold. I figured the debt would follow me and I wasn't paying it on principles, so let 'em ding me.

Two weeks AFTER the sale, they filed a lien on the house, for the debt dating to prior to the sale. My lawyer buddy said discard it, they can't touch you, so I did.

Now, nine months later, the title office called. They paid the debt to the city, and they want me to pay the debt that they paid to the city, so the people that bought from us could sell the house because of the lien. They never contacted us, they just paid it and then came asking for money.

At this point, depending on who you ask, the bill is $2200, $4500, or $600, but the title company paid $4500.

The lien didn't exists before the sale, the statement on closing says 'bills or debts for improvements, repairs, etc' and NOT 'unpaid bills, [note the comma] or debts....' so I read that as 'bills' for improvements and repair, not 'unpaid bills'.

Am I liable for the debt? A real-estate buddy says they have omission insurance for that, and they didn't find the lien beforehand, so...they hold the bag. My lawyer buddy is unsure. This is a weird situation.

Your thoughts?

I think the bigger question is is it worth the title company's time to come after you?  Is it worth the seller's time to come after you?

I'm not a lawyer but I did have a drink with one at a Holiday Inn about 20 years ago, I always thought a water bill debt was the one thing that stayed with you until you die. I'm not sure posting a lien was correct, I think a lawsuit would be more in order. How can a lien be filed on property you don't own would be my question.

OP initially states water provider demanded pay in full and refused partial payments.

Then states that they resumed paying for water after the rehab and the provider was applying those payments to prior debt.

Also appears that the initial debt was in dispute and that was why OP refused to pay.

I would tell title company they got suckered. Water provider has failed to prove exact amounts that were legitimately owed.

They paid off a debt collector who was fishing, on a lien filed after the sale.

Just my opinion - but I have some experience with scum of the earth debt collectors who know no boundaries.

IMO, it clearly states "unpaid bills" and there is no association of those words to the word "improvements" that you are trying to make.  While you do not disclose the whole statement and end with "etc.", the sentence is clearly asking for disclosure of unpaid items.  

Frankly, I think you knew what you were trying to do and I believe if the title company wanted to, they could come after you for falsely answering and attesting to that there were no unpaid paid bills....even if those bills were in dispute.

There's a lot of information you are not providing and some of the dates seem off.  You do not say when you bought the house and when you received your first water bill.  One would ask why you didn't notify the water company that the water needed to be shut off after receiving that first water bill when you "thought" they had shut off the water in the first place.  Even IF you did not receive a bill, how could you not know the water was on?  After all, the home was being rehabbed.  One would think a reasonable person would call the water company again to turn off the water.  BTW, you never mentioned the actual water usage recorded....

As was pointed out in an earlier post, there appear to be inconsistent statements you provided in whether the water company would or would not accept "partial" payments.  After all, they did accept partial payments....

Will the title company come after you for $600, probably not.  Will they come after you for $4,500, I would think so.....at least I would.

Pretty much this.

You owe the $s, the title company will come after you for $4,500, and there is probably a cost of collections clause, so they’ll add their attorney and other collection costs.

If I was in the title company’s shoes I’d also add fraud to the complaint and seek punitive or treble damages, whichever the state law permits.

You're only reading what you wanted to read in that sentence knowing you had a debt.

Do you really believe the intent of the sentence was to ask if you had unpaid bills associated with improvements or repairs?

Or that the intent was to ask if the property had any financials requiring disclosure, such as unpaid bills or debts of any type?

If it didn't mention improvements and you owed your remodel contractor $4500, would you have mentioned that?

I don't know

I do know $4500 would pay my water bill for 10 years.

you read it wrong.

'Seller agrees that there are no unpaid bills or debts from improvements, repairs, etc'

you have an unpaid bill.

why was there a water bill during rehab of the house when no water was being used?

You should have settled before the sale. Going to bet you know this.

You figured you would run out the clock and dump the debt on the next home owner.

You're going to get tagged if taken to court and for $4500, they will take you to court and add their costs to that amount.

So....you lied.



Irrelevent.



Again, you are aware of the debt.




Have you never paid bills before?



Get a new lawyer. Not buddy, but one you pay.



Of course they did. You lied at the closing and now they come to you to fix the problem you caused.


Interest, late fees, collection fees, fines be like it is, but it do.



Fail.



Yup




You need an ethics buddy.

Last I checked, a bill is a debt and a lien is a debt.

Or they will stack more charges on the value of the lien.
They are spending YOUR money for you.

Utility liens vary state by state, and sometimes even in different parts of a state.

Liens from a government utility (water, sewage, power, gas, etc) are often VERY
difficult to extinguish without paying  them, and any expenses racked up trying to collect.

It may be somewhat easier if the utility is a private company, but they have made sure
they are protected in most places.

Municipalities don't operate like a typical business.

Yep.  OP, you can't dodge this bullet.  And the fact you knew this before you signed all those documents at the sell of the property doomed you.

It's because of people like this that first time home owners (like me) absolutely hated the experience of buying my first home.  Also shame on the buyers for not doing their due diligence.  Do the right thing and pay the bill.  If not, you moral compass is completely fucked and you are the reason the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

I'm no lawyer , but here is my take . OP should have fixed the issue LONG ago. seriously you though that you DIDNT owe for services rendered(water) and that simply ignoring it would make it go away? Additionally then passing the buck on to the next buyer without their knowledge? really??
Now I would assume that the fine print on your title insurance(normal part of closing) would say you are aware of no PENDING debts against the property (IE liens) and so you lied.
THink about the 4473(atf gun form) it says "im not a criminal... " AND " im not about to be a criminal just they haven't finished convicting me yet" . Same thing here, you got caught, then before your court date stuff caught up with you sold the property(while having knowledge of an outstanding debit against it that you didn't disclose)... That might actually be an issue(lying about large sums of money on usually notarized documents, with notarized signatures on many of them...)

Again im not a lawyer but you might have opened the door to criminal charges of some kind. I would recommend getting this taken care of ASAP, even if it means hitting the emergency fund for the mentioned 4500 bucks if you can, and send new owners a nice fruit basket or some such and a "sorry about that mix up with checks, enjoy the house, make friends with Bill in blue house across street he makes awesome BBQ " note. But that is me(40 years old, only owned 2 houses, and pay my bills on time)

To be very clear, this issue has NOTHING to do with the buyers.  Could the buyers have called the utility companies to see if there were any outstanding debts?  Possibly, but not all utility companies will give out that information.  While I have not reviewed the sales contract, even if the buyers somehow discovered the debt, they themselves probably had no recourse other than to delay the closing or possibly canceling the contract.....thus forcing the seller to remedy the debt.  Then there is the issue of the buyer being injured.....

The what-ifs and tangents can keep going....  The facts remain the seller fraudulently signed a statement that there were no unpaid bills or debts.  

To reiterate, this is in no way the buyer's issue or fault.  You shaming the buyers is misdirected.....

You usually have a service charge (monthly) attached to utility bills.