Community Update

People of North Andover, I ask you. If you don't pay your electric bill do they not they shut off your electricity? I once didn't pay my vehicle excise tax on time here in town and sure enough I got a yellow slip followed by a pink slip in the mail basically threatening to report me to the registry of motor vehicles if I didn't pay my debt. Now the water bill here in North Andover is a bit different. More lenient. I got a Notice of Delinquency from the office of the town treasurer & collector which states, "Should you wish to make partial payments against this outstanding balance, please call the Tax Collector's office to set up a payment plan". How kind and sweet of them folks. So we have our moments sometimes that derail us whether it is a death in the family or divorce but we can recoup and get back on track. Recently my wife and I got a real shock when the town tax collector sent us a delinquency notice for unpaid property taxes totaling a whopping $42,953.67 In short, my wife had taken out a home equity loan (the house was paid off in 2010 )and she honestly thought that with the extra money she was putting towards paying off the equity loan a check was being cut to pay the town property taxes through another plan she had set up with the bank. So it's an honest mistake but my wife is having a nervous breakdown because she feels she's the blame. My question is why didn't the "office of the town treasurer office & collector send us a notice until "seven", that's 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 years later? But wait, for an unpaid water bill or excise tax you get either a threat or a payment plan. So we met with the tax collector at town hall and they said if the delinquency real estate tax had reached $50,000 they would have imposed a lien and we could have lost our home. Question: Why didn't we get any delinquency notices for such an outstanding balance until seven years later? Answer: "We have an outside printing company that prints the tax bill and "they" should have informed you". A printing company called DLM & ASSociates, Inc. located in Worcester. Thanks for the heart attack. I did find a few overdue tax notice sentences on some of the tax bills (small print and conveniently located in the fold of the bill), but not consistent and barely noticeable plus they appeared only on the May and November bills and only for 2013. The interest alone is $13,180.19 Someone dropped the ball and if there are other's out there that you know of with this same issue please let me know. If I didn't know any better I would sense a silent scam here.