REMARKS
DEP's methods for communicating with customers about overdue payments
1:54:09
·
118 sec
Albert Kramer from DEP explains the agency's methods for communicating with customers about overdue payments. He emphasizes DEP's efforts to avoid foreclosures and lien sales, detailing their communication strategies and the challenges they face in reaching property owners.
- DEP uses multiple communication methods, including robocalls, letters, and pre-lien warnings at various stages of delinquency.
- The agency faces challenges when customers don't respond to multiple communication attempts.
- DEP relies on property owners to provide up-to-date contact information.
- For smaller populations affected by programs like TPT, DEP can conduct more manual searches to locate property owners.
Albert Kramer
1:54:09
Yes.
1:54:10
So as as stated earlier
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:54:12
I think your Microsoft.
Albert Kramer
1:54:17
Alright.
1:54:17
It's close to the mic, but the mic wasn't on.
1:54:19
Alright.
1:54:19
Better.
1:54:20
So as stated earlier, you know, any of our customers that are registered from my DP account to provide an email address, we have that as a point of a point of contact.
1:54:29
You know, in addition, service address, mailing address.
1:54:32
I think I think a key point of distinction or from when trying to communicate with customers and this is DP's experience and maybe a shared experience with my colleagues is that you know, 1, none of us are, you know, DPA, we don't want customers to go into foreclosure via TPT or a lien sale.
1:54:48
That's the last option.
1:54:49
So we're trying to do everything we can to avoid that, and I think that's just a really important thing to to to state.
1:54:56
And, you know, in terms of communication, a lot of times, we, you know, when a customer first falls behind, we send them a, you know, a robocall after 3 days, a letter after 30 days, 60 days, a 120 days, 180 days, pre lean warnings.
1:55:10
Like, we're we're going out of our way to try to communicate to these customers.
1:55:13
And sometimes they're getting that and they're just not responding.
1:55:16
And I think the DoF delinquency notices is a good example of that.
1:55:19
If I'm talking out of turn, let me know.
1:55:21
It's not like it was magically going to all new addresses.
1:55:23
It was going to the same place.
1:55:25
It just let customers and property owners know the serious consequences of not paying your property taxes, and people responded by paying their property taxes.
1:55:34
And we found the same thing with with the with the water and sewer debt in terms of you know, when when you're raising the the concept of an enforcement that helps people, you know, brings a sense of urgency that didn't exist before.
1:55:46
But we're we're always trying to find, you know, additional sources.
1:55:49
But, you know, it's a this it's ultimately, we need the property owner to tell us how to how to reach them.
1:55:55
And as, you know, the population is smaller in a world of TPT, you know, you can do advanced more manual searches.
1:56:01
Right?
1:56:01
You can look at additional things like property shark and others to try to find these property owners as best you can.
