Customers asked to check utility bills for correct information
Marlene Feist, City of Spokane Utilities, (509) 625-6505
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 3 p.m.
Over the weekend, the City of Spokane updated more than 30,000 customer utility accounts to include the name of the property’s owner as reflected in Spokane County property tax information. More updates will continue throughout the month of January. Customers are asked to check their City utility bills in January and February to ensure all bill information is accurate.
A customer with incorrect information on his or her bill should call the Utility Billing Office at 509.625.6000 to fix the problem. Also, if a customer doesn’t receive a bill as usual in January, he or she should call the same number.
“We’ve spent considerable time working to update our account information to communicate more effectively with customers,” says Ken Gimpel, the City’s Assistant Division Director of Utilities. “We want to thank all the customers who voluntarily provided us with updated information, and now we want to ensure that the accounts we are changing automatically have correct information.”
Throughout the fall, the City asked customers to voluntarily update their utility accounts to include the name of the property owner of a property or a property management firm responsible for a property. Many City utility accounts traditionally were assigned to the “occupant” at a particular address or were in the name of tenants who come and go.
Thousands of customers provided their information in response to the City’s request, and then many of the rest were updated using County tax information. A number of accounts still will need to be updated after City staff verifies other information.
The City’s utility bills include charges for water, wastewater, stormwater, and curbside garbage and recycling collection. The City’s Utilities serve more than 75,000 residential and business customers both inside and outside the city limits.
Nothing else related to the City’s utility bills is changing as a result of this conversion. The City continues to accept payments from owners, property management companies, tenants or any third party. The property owner remains responsible for the bill, but a duplicate can be sent to a tenant.
