It wasn’t long ago when the City of Naperville was caught charging residents for services not rendered. It could be happening again, and if it is, the City will owe those residents more than just the amount they were overcharged. Chances are it’s not being done by design, it’s more likely due to incompetence or laziness by someone not paying attention to detail.
Previously the City was sued for charging and collecting refuse fees from persons and entities that were included on their utility bill, however said persons and entities did not contract with the City for their refuse disposal, a different company was used, hence those people and entities should not have been charged. It is as simple as that.
A three-step process makes it easy to determine if you have been defrauded by the City; 1) Check your City of Naperville utility bill to determine if you are being charged for refuse pick-up, 2) see if Groot (city vendor for refuse) is picking up your refuse, 3) if it’s a different company, contact the City and ask why.
Groot picks up my refuse and the City charges me $14. That’s how it should work. If it was a different company, the City could be on the hook for:
- Breach of Contract
- Common Law Fraud
- Violation of City of Naperville Municipal Code
- Unjust Enrichment
- Statuary Fraud
The City of Naperville should have cleaned up its act when the problem was discovered a few years ago, however incompetence or laziness creep up if left unattended.
The people being inappropriately charged this fee were primarily businesses (which are not part of the Groot contract) & some condo/townhouse complexes that used dumpsters for residents to put their trash in. These dumpsters my be serviced by Groot but are not part of the city contract.