Long Beach utilities will begin cutting off gas service for customers who are behind on payments for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
For residential accounts more than $800 after in payments, gas shutdowns began Sunday, according to a city memo from the city’s Chief Financial Officer Kevin Riper. Before the pandemic, the suspension limit for all delinquent accounts was $50.
The change follows the reinstatement of a policy in August 2023 that shuts off water with a balance of $800 more than 60 days late.
In Long Beach, the total amount of residential gas bills unpaid for more than 120 days equaled more than $6.4 million, according to the memo.
Still, unpaid utility bills are a relatively small portion of the city’s revenue.
The total amount of late payments for gas, water, waste and sewer — $13.6 million — represents 3.7% of all fee revenue the city collected last year, the memo said.
The resumption of late fees has been delayed as late as March 2025, as the department focuses solely on resuming collections this fall, according to the memo.
The city will also begin taking legal action to collect late payments, but any debt older than two years will likely be written off, Riper wrote. Debts older than three years are not collectable under the Fair Debt Collection Act.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ended its covid shutdown moratorium and resumed collecting late payments in March 2022, two years after it began.