Norwich ― Nearly three years after he purchased his house at 54 Lambert Drive, Allen Pope was surprised to receive a letter from Norwich Public Utilities for past-due sewer assessment fees, with 18% penalty interest tacked on.

Kelly Hajduk of 27 Flyers Drive received a similar letter on a sewer assessment charge she said should have been paid in 2009, when she bought the house. Hajduk, a resident with disabilities, said the $10,000 past-due bill “is half my income.”

“This was not my bill to begin with,” Hajduk said. “If it was, I would have paid it.”

The two residents spoke during Monday’s City Council public hearing on an ordinance to forgive interest penalties on sewer assessments for 133 residents who owe $1.2 million in total assessments, including $647,763 in delinquent balances.

NPU officials told the City Council the bills slipped through the cracks in several ways. Some were not paid off as required when properties are sold. Some owners failed to keep up with payments, and NPU’s “collection efforts have been inconsistent” over the years.

Now, NPU is closing out 20-year bonds used to pay for the sewer installation projects and needs payments.

Because some of the delinquent bills were not the fault of the property owners, the city-owned utility asked the City Council Monday to pass an ordinance waiving penalty interest on the assessments due and to allow customers to extend payment plans for another 10 years. The initial assessments were stretched over 20 years, but state law allows up to 30 years to pay sewer assessments, NPU attorney Joe Szerejko, of the firm Murtha Cullina, said.

The assessments were applied to all properties where new sewer lines were built in neighborhoods, regardless of whether individual homes connected to the line. Liens were placed on the properties to be lifted after the assessments were paid.

Szerejko said typically, the assessment is paid off when the property is sold, and the utility service is transferred to the new owner.

“That didn’t happen with a lot of these properties that were sold,” Szerejko said.

The council approved the ordinance unanimously, along with a second ordinance allowing sewer assessment payment plans for elderly residents and residents with disabilities, similar to payment plans for property taxes.

Pope said he was aware of the sewer assessment when he moved into his house 33 months ago, but mistakenly believed it would be part of his property tax bills. He said NPU never notified him the bills were overdue until August.

“Thirty-three months seems to be an unusual amount of time to let anyone know that they are delinquent on any sort of financial obligation,” Pope told the City Council.

He said he called NPU and learned there was no consistent process to switch the assessment into the new property owner’s name.

Hajduk said her assessment should have been paid off in 2009, when she bought the house from her mother-in-law after her husband died. She said the transaction went through probate and the assessment should have been discovered in the legal process.

“To my surprise, I started receiving sewer assessments with interest,” Hajduk said. “I did not receive notice in my name for at least several years.”

NPU spokesman Chris Riley said the ordinance was an effort by NPU to resolve the problems in a way that would be fair to those unaware of delinquent bills and to customers who paid off their assessments on time.

According to a chart provided by NPU, 253 customers still had assessment balances due, totaling $1.2 million in August, and 10 made full payments as of Sept. 15. Of the total, 133 were delinquent on payments due each year, with delinquent balances totaling $647,763. Two customers paid off those balances in full, totaling $22,724.

c.bessette@theday.com