Water company put a lien on my property

[Michael Fundaro]

I am just about finished going through a roughly 2 year debacle with the local water company here (MDC).  The story has a lot of moving parts so forgive me if it gets confusing, I know I was confused as this all unraveled.

Summary:

My girlfriend and I own a duplex whose water service has been terminated because MDC mishandled a billing issue with the previous owner of the property at the time of the sale to us. The case was being dragged on in court, all the while we were receiving harassing notices stating service would be terminated and a lien would be placed on our property. After our attorney said a 'standing agreement' was made with MDC to keep service on until the case was settled, we were told to ignore these notices. They kept coming, and yesterday service was terminated, leaving us and our tenants without water. When we called the MDC about this termination, we were met with a condescending, and rude attitude. And now we are jumping through bureaucratic hoops to return service to our property.

Details:

We closed in December, 2015.  At the time of closing, the seller was "up to date" on her MDC account.  We purchased title insurance, and no outstanding balance or lien on the property showed up in our title search. We were then told to contact MDC to set up an appointment to update our meter.   We did so, thinking this was a transfer-of-ownership kind of thing.   About 1 year passes, during which we pay our water bill on time and in full every month.  At this point, we are used to our monthly water expense  being about 100 bucks.  So you can imagine my surprise when we got a bill one month for $4100.

I don't know exactly what was done when they updated our meter... but apparently that update uncovered a $4100 balance that the seller owed.  Turns out MDC was sending the seller "estimated bills" for a number of years.  She was paying them diligently, which is why this balance did not come up at closing.  Upon uncovering this, MDC charged her $4100.  She refused to pay, because at the time of closing she was up to date.  We then get billed that $4100 balance.

Something was up, we didn't just increase our monthly water consumption by 4,000% all willy nilly.  I call our attorney, he calls BS on MDC and tells them to send the bill back to the seller.  She refuses again.  At this point, our Attorney files a claim with our title insurer to pay for this.  So now fast forward to July of 2017.  Our title insurer is taking the seller to court, and our attorney tells us that he talked to MDC, and water service will not be terminated until the case is settled, and this will come at no expense to us.  Great. The court hearing is scheduled for December 2017.  December 2017 rolls around. We don't hear from our attorney, yet every bill we get shows what we owe, plus $4100 and whatever late fee started accruing.  we continue to diligently pay for our usage and fees.

Yesterday our water gets shut off.  I find out from our attorney that back in December, the seller had admitted to owing the $4100 balance, but could not afford it at the time.  She would not sign a judgement, so the case was extended.  The title insurer would not dish out the balance (now over $4400 due to late fees) unless they had a signed judgment.  Someone at MDC yesterday, just doing their job, sees that our account is showing as extremely passed due, and didn't get whatever memo stated that water service would not be terminated until after the court case in December was closed.  So they shut our water.

Our Attorney gets a check from the title insurer to pay it right away, and actually as I write this post today, a day later, our water has been turned back on.

Question: 

Is MDC shutting our water in this case illegal?  We plan to discuss with our attorney further...