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Utility questions? Shut offs, extensions, payment assistance?
City of Dowagiac General Publication
Effective November 1, 2019, electric and/or water shut-off rules went into effect.
*If you or your spouse is in the military, you are provided certain shut-off protections pursuant to MCL 460-9C.
*During the heating season – November 1st through March 31st – residents may request 2 additional 10-day extension agreements.
*If you or a member of your household has a certified medical condition which requires electricity, shut-offs may be extended or postponed an additional 21 days.
*The rules provide that during the heating season when temperatures fall below 35 degrees – November 1st through March 31st – and the cooling season when temperatures exceed 94 degrees – citizens shall not have electrical services disconnected.
*Customers may be eligible for payment assistance of electrical or water/sewer services. Contact the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) at (269) 445-0200 to obtain additional information on State Emergency Relief (SER).
*Pursuant to section 21 of 1933 PA 94, MCL 141.121, the charges for electric, water, and/or sewer service are hereby made a lien on all premises served thereby. Whenever any such charges against such premises shall be delinquent for six months, the city manager shall report the delinquencies to the council twice per year. Thereupon the council shall order publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the city of notice that all unpaid such utility charges not paid will be spread on the city’s tax roll against the premises to which such utility services were supplied or furnished. If such utility charges are not paid, the city manager shall report to the tax assessing officer of the city, the fact of such delinquency, whereupon such charges shall be entered upon the next tax roll by the tax assessing officer as a charge against such premises to which such utility services were supplied or furnished, and the charges shall be collected and the lien enforced in the same manner as provided or the collection of taxes assessed upon the roll and the enforcement of the lien for the taxes.