So. This is my thing. I think op did not do everything correct. Why? Cuz they are surprised and unsure as to why they are now getting notification.

My contention was/is: if you were checking your banking accounts routinely, you'd know that specific bill wasn't getting paid.

Let's say you aren't routinely checking your acct, which is stupid as fuck but a lot of people do not. Then when you get a water bill, your eyes generally go right to amount owed. In that box, right above amount owed, is previous amount owed. The middle of the paper, is a graph which shows you how much water was used.

But let's say you are like me. The water bill is on my desk, unopened. When I have a mind, I go online and pay the bill. The online bill also says, how much is owed, previous unpaid bill, and the last time paid.

The amount owed, previous and current cannot be missed.

Even if you're on auto pay. Which, I refuse to do with any utility but to each their own, you'll be notification of how much you owe, when it'll be taken out and a breakdown of the bill.

So, allll that to say.

Op isn't doing everything correctly. To me, they fucked up somewhere and want to blame DPW. Nah, that's on you.

Simply monitoring your bank accounts will solve this solution.

The city will put a lien on for water bills. That's not something any owner should play with.

>OP is doing everything correctly and the city is fucking up their bill.

This is incorrect. It's the inverse.