Unpaid water bills and absent owners could render families homeless as the city of Red Bank decides whether to classify two apartment complexes as “unfit for human habitation.”
Lacking running water, units at Ridgemont Park and Cambridge Park could be condemned.
“If there’s no running water, we have to condemn,” Red Bank Public Works Director Wayne Hamill said.
Water service is included in the rent at the complexes, but the owners in Syracuse, N.Y., often must be badgered to pay the bills, Red Bank officials said.
Tennessee American Water spokeswoman Kim Dalton said privacy issues prevented her from talking about specific billing problems with the complexes, but Red Bank City Manager Chris Dorsey said he hears from Tennessee American “fairly often” and is forced to nag the property managers until water bills “get wired from New York.”