EDITORIAL: Garbage company wants your house over missed bills

Trash service in the Las Vegas area runs about $20 a month. Republic Services, which enjoys a monopoly on garbage pickup in the valley, generally gets high marks for its customer service.

But the company has taken some lumps lately for aggressively going after delinquent accounts and even threatening foreclosure on homes over bills involving less than $5,000. While it’s understandable that Republic would seek to get paid for its services, it should be a rare instance that a homeowner be put out on the street over unpaid trash invoices.

The Review-Journal reported this week that, since the start of 2020, the Republic Services has gone to court to force foreclosure 150 times over a homeowner’s failure to pay the trash bill and assorted late fees. The company also seeks attorney fees, which can add thousands to the judgment.

“I think it’s wildly disproportionate,” said Peter Aldous, an attorney with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, “to take somebody’s home for a very small amount of money.”

He’s right. But blame the Legislature. For health reasons, the company may not stop service in response to delinquent bills. Instead, statutes allow Republic to file a lien on the property that must be paid off if the home is sold or refinanced. Once the lien is filed, the garbage hauler also has the ability to pursue foreclosure under state law.

Nevada law in this regard can be quite quirky. During the housing meltdown of 2008, state law allowed those who paid off HOA liens on a property to potentially take title to the home regardless of whether a bank or mortgage company held a legitimate paper on the residence. The state statute that gave “superpriority” to HOA liens has survived legal challenges as long as the note holder is notified of the unpaid obligations.

A similar premise is at work here.

“Unfortunately, there are times when customer’s accounts become overdue to the point that Republic must exercise its authority to impose a property lien in order to ensure eventual payment for the services rendered,” a company representative told the Review-Journal in a statement.

Fair enough. But a lien is a far cry from foreclosure, which should be extremely rare and a last resort.

In Republic’s defense, most of the homeowners who face such a drastic step haven’t paid a bill in years. Customers have to repeatedly ignore invoices over multiple quarterly cycles to run up a debt of even $1,000. Still, foreclosure remains extreme. Before the company rushes to court, it should consider a hardship program for those in need while making every effort to offer delinquent homeowners the chance to set up payment plans to get out from under liens and unpaid bills.