united-states utah
If I don&#39;t get a water/sewage/garbage bill in the mail for over 4 years, can the city now force me to pay it all?
<p>I live in Layton, UT, USA and I have a neighbor who owns a home he rents out. For the last four years he hasn't seen a water/sewage/garbage bill for the property. He assumed that it was getting sent to the rental address instead of his personal one, and that the tenants must have been taking care of it because he never got a notice saying that his account was over due.</p>
<p>Well now the city is saying he owes over $4,000 in back pay for all the water and services over the past four years on the rental property. He found out that four years ago the city switched to a new utility billing software. It turns out that during the migration, his utility account for the rental property was lost, thus resulting in the lack of bills and over due statements.</p>
<p><strong>Can the city legally force him to pay the full amount that he should have paid even though it is clearly the city's fault?</strong> I tried to find laws about this sort of thing, but my Google-fu is lacking when it comes to legal questions.</p>

<h2>Up to any time bar in a statute of limitations: yes</h2>
<p>By using the services, your neighbour incurred the debt. The debt did not become due and payable until the bill was issued. It doesn’t matter <em>when</em> the bill was issued.</p>
<p>In most jurisdictions, there is a statute of limitations with a time limit on how long after a debt was accrued it can be pursued. For Utah, the limit is 6 years so your neighbour is liable for all of the past 4 years.</p>
<p>Given the circumstances, the utility may look favourably on proposals for discounts and time to pay but that will be a commercial decision, not a legal obligation.</p>
