united-states real-estate florida
Am I liable for 20 year old water bill for a house I bought?
<p>I bought a house in Florida in 2017 and when I went to get the water service turned on they told me there is a water bill from 1998 and I need to pay it. Is it my responsibility even if I didn't own the house and there had been 6 other owners before me?</p>

<p>To get an answer tailored to your problem, you need to get a lawyer. The general answer is that the water bill goes with the property, not the person using the water. The unpaid bill can become a lien on the property, and the house can be taken and sold to satisfy the lien. </p>

<p>There are other factors / questions. Under Florida law (<a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0100-0199/0180/Sections/0180.135.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">180.135</a>), if the debt arises from a renter who incurred the debt directly with the utility, a lien cannot be placed against the property. Any lien must be perfected (filed with the courts), and the point of a title search is to find such liens – assuming that a title search was done. There is a limit to how long you can wait to collect on a debt (7 years). </p>
