New York City is drowning in unpaid water bills — and Manhattan’s boutique Hotel Hayden leads the pack.
Since the pandemic, the number of accounts that have failed to pay their water bills has increased significantly, and now the city is clamping down.
In a news conference this week, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which manages the water system, announced it will be sending water shutoff notices to approximately 2,400 chronically delinquent customers.
“You have two weeks. We’ve tried everything. We tried to communicate with you. Our goal is never to turn off your water; our goal is to get you to pay your water bill,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the conference, PIX11 reported.
(The current enforcement action is targeted towards commercial properties and one-to-three family homes that have been unresponsive to the DEP.)
The biggest four debtors are all hotels, together owing close to $897,000, according to the New York Times.
Chelsea’s Hotel Hayden, where rooms rent for anywhere from $139 to $429 a night, topped the list with its unpaid $372,026 bill.
“Hotel Hayden claims to be the hippest boutique hotel in Chelsea. But skipping out on nearly $400,000 worth of water bills and expecting New Yorkers to pick up the tab is not hip, it’s unlawful,” Adams posted on X alongside a photo of him posting a water shutoff notice on the lodging’s door, adding “Today, we’re taking action to shut down their water supply.”
Hotel Hayden did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
In all, the chronically delinquent owe the city $102 million, but with close to one in four water customers behind in payments as of January, the total amount of unpaid water bills is far higher: $1.2 billion, a service-threatening amount, the New York Times reported.
Although hotels have the largest individual debts, residential properties owe a far larger portion — 85% — of the overall bill.