KC Water billing dispute endangers residents of Kansas City nursing homes, lawsuit says
The owners of two nursing homes are suing Kansas City over a utility bill dispute that has allegedly involved the city threatening the facilities with water and sewage shutoffs, which the lawsuit claims endangers the health of 260 ill and elderly residents.
The lawsuit, filed July 29 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, seeks damages and an injunction that would remove a lien that KC Water, the city’s water department, placed on one of properties, keeping it from shutting off services to the nursing homes and requiring it to provide accounting for charges at the properties.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of corporations that hold The Hilltop at Blue River at 10425 Chestnut Drive and Rock Hill Nursing Center at 8033 Holmes Road. The facilities are owned by investors in California and Canada, according to the lawsuit.
Mayer Klein, an attorney for the nursing homes, wrote in court documents that the utility hasn’t explained bills and has “gone nuclear” in placing a $178,000 lien against one of the facilities for delinquent payments.
Klein declined to comment for this story, saying, “We very much would like to reach amicable resolution with (KC Water) and bring this to a rapid conclusion.”
Spokespeople for KC Water and the city did not respond to The Star’s messages seeking comment.
According to court documents, the dispute has its roots with the prior operators of the homes, a pair of companies — Blue River MO Consulting LLC and Kansas City South MO Consulting LLC — that ran the facilities under leases in 2021 and 2022. During that time, the operators allegedly did not pay utility bills for several months and racked up charges of more than $130,000 with KC Water, according to the lawsuit.
At the end of 2022, the current operators took over responsibilities at the two facilities, and the utility began including the balance owed in their utility bills.
“KC Water aggressively threatened to shut off water and sewage services to (the facilities) within twenty-four (24) hours because of (the balance) — directly endangering the lives of the nursing homes’ 260 ill and elderly residents,” Klein wrote in the lawsuit.
The new operators “had no choice but to pay KC Water” around $130,000 to clear the old balance but later came to a settlement with KC Water in which the utility agreed to return the payment in September 2023, the lawsuit said.
Klein wrote that immediately after the utility returned the payment, “in a complete about-face and without any justification or excuse,” KC Water then attempted to bill the nursing homes for about $122,000, a move he said was “illogical” and disregarded the settlement agreement.
The nursing homes also allege bills from KC Water have had irregularities and don’t reflect payments of $213,000 that have been made for the facilities. The lawsuit says the current operators have attempted to resolve the dispute with KC Water for 18 months, but said the utility has not been able to explain its bills.
The utility has allegedly issued multiple 24-hour shutoff notices to the Blue River facility, the lawsuit said.
In March, the city placed a $178,000 lien on the nursing home, which the lawsuit contends is “completely baseless” as the old balance was owed by the prior operators and was released by the settlement, the suit stated.
