Channel Two investigation has discovered a high rise condominium in Buckhead filled with expensive units paid nearly nothing for water and sewer for nearly 15-years.

Investigative Reporter Richard Belcher found the homeowners' association knew it wasn't being billed for at least 12 of those years.

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"It's shocking to me.  If everyone knew this story, it would cause outrage to everyone," Phoenix on Peachtree condo owner Jack Richardson told Belcher.  
    
Richardson moved into the building just as it opened in 2001.
 

Asking prices at the Phoenix on Peachtree today range from $400,000 to more than $1,000,000.
 

And for years there was an unwritten amenity: the city wasn't charging for water and sewer.
 

Richardson became aware of the billing problem from an homeowner association audit that stated:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"As of December 31, 2003, the association had not received a bill for a meter that services common areas...This has been a problem from the beginning."

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Richardson says he was told the homeowner's association would pay it.

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"We believed what the board told us," Richardson said.

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Richardson says he became even more concerned when he had trouble getting HOA financial records in later years.

Eventually, he became convinced the bills were not being paid. Richardson says every resident pays for common area water and sewer usage as part of their HOA fees.

      

"They've actively sought to cover this up from the residents of the building. And they got caught," Richardson said.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

In early 2015, 11-years after that audit revealed the billing problem, other residents began to ask questions.
    

One email to fellow residents stated: "it's very unfortunate that the board...made the extremely questionable decision more than a decade ago not to discover why the association was being grossly under-billed."
   

Another emailed: "surely the directors did not believe the 'free' services would last forever"    
    

Another resident reported that board member and resident Erroll Davis -- the former Atlanta school superintendent -- had said "the board did not feel that there was an ethical or legal obligation to attempt to pay...Unless the city sent a bill."

  

"I believe over 15-years we owe approximately one million dollars without penalties and interest, just on the pure bill alone," said Richardson, who is a financial advisor.
   
It's a significant amount of money," Atlanta Watershed Management spokeswoman Lillian Govus told Belcher. The city provided billing records dating back to 2001.
    

Govus says since then the Phoenix on Peachtree condominium paid only a few water bills and has not paid any sewer bills. She says the water bills they did pay were about 95% too low.

    

After members from the HOA board approached the city last fall, the city found meter and billing problems at the condo location that stretched back perhaps as far as 2001.

As of October 2015, they started paying both sewer and water bills. 
     

"Right now, the city has no intent to back bill this property, because part of it was our responsibility," Govus told Belcher.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I can't believe the lengths that the board went to to hide this for so long," Richardson said. 
    

"This should have been resolved 15-years ago and could have, had the board, you know, just made a 5-minute call to the city water and sewer department."

 

Former Atlanta Schools superintendant Erroll Davis told Belcher the billing issue was the result of turnover in the HOA board.

   

Responding to our report, Loretta Green, who works on the water bill appeals board, says she was appalled at the decision by the DWM.

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Vincent Fort, a longtime state lawmaker and current city of Atlanta mayoral candidate told Belcher the situation made him think of the working class and poor who struggle to pay some of the highest water and sewer rates in the country.

"Unbelieveable," Fort said.

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And Derrick Boazman, a former Atlanta councilman, called a media gathering on the sidewalk of the Phoenix condominium to say someone should be fired for allowing the swanky Buckhead property to get away without paying. 

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At a September Public Utilities meeting Watershed Commissioner Kishia Powell answered questions about the error from chair Natalyn Archibong and councilman Howard Shook.   

She told Belcher she had spoken with representatives from the Phoenix on Peachtree and is working with her law department to address the issue.  
 

This, despite initially telling Belcher they would not back-bill the building.  

But in November,  Watershed sent a demand letter to the condo for $486,000 in unbilled water since 2007.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Richardson says the error has existed since the building opened in 2001 and that amount is not even half of what he calculated the residents owe.  The department says billing data older than 2007 is not reliable.

 

In December, Atlanta Watershed revealed they failed to charge 10 other properties for sewer services and sent demand letters totaling nearly $4 million. They began a review of large building accounts after Belcher's reporting on the Phoenix condominium.  

 

The most recognizable is the Georgia Pacific tower on Peachtree Street.  The city says records are only reliable back to 2007 but admits the skyscraper may not have paid for sewer since it was built in 1982.  Watershed is demanding $1.9 million from the building's owners.

 

But representatives from the Georgia Pacific building quickly responded saying they don't owe any water or sewer bills. Karen Cole with Georgia Pacific told Belcher the city incorrectly estimated that one of three meters in the building was using sewer services. Cole said it only uses water for cooling purposes. 

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Also being sent demand letters: 2 Publix supermarkets, 2 hotels, a senior living facility, a YMCA and a sports bar. 

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