LIVERMORE FALLS — Properties that were seized by the town due to unpaid sewer fees and have gone through the lien process could soon be sold by the town.

Selectmen on Tuesday evening suggested next steps for the 22 properties. At their Dec. 3 meeting, selectmen were given a list of 20 owners of those properties that have gone through the lien process.

In February 2023, 30-day notices were sent by Alex Pawson, the town’s former deputy clerk and sewer clerk, to let people know the amount in sewer fees needed to be paid to stop the lien process. In May 2023, the liens were started. Dec. 2 was the date of automatic foreclosure.

Town Manager Carrie Castonguay provided the latest information for each property, including the last time real estate taxes and sewer fees were paid. She asked if more information was needed before the Dec. 17 meeting when selectmen are expected to vote on what to do with each property.

Tammy Gray, the town’s current deputy clerk and sewer clerk, indicated if certified letters for each property had been signed for, or returned unclaimed. Each sewer bill clearly states the current balance, past due balance, any lien costs and the total amount due, she noted. “The past due amount is completely separate,” she said.

It wasn’t as though bills weren’t being sent out, Selectman Jim Long stated.

Castonguay said there were four options selectmen could take on each property:

• Do nothing (which Castonguay did not recommend).

• Contract with a real estate broker to sell it.

• Put the property out for sale through a sealed bid.

• Work with the owner to develop a repurchase arrangement with a specified payment plan.

With a one-year repayment plan, the amounts due for sewer fees, real estate taxes, accumulated interest, the estimated amounts due for the coming year, plus an additional 10% to cover staff time would be totaled then divided by 12, Castonguay noted. If a payment isn’t made, the agreement ends, she stated.

“I like the opportunity to save the property, the home,” Selectman Bruce Peary said. “It is up to them.”

The town would own the property until after the final payment is made, Castonguay said.

Long proposed selling a property if it had an absentee owner or if the amounts due went back several years. “A landlord is getting money from it, should be paying,” he stated.

A counselor is working with one owner, trying to get funding through the state to pay the amounts due, Gray said.

Long asked if the owners know the town has taken possession of their property. Gray told him they know if they had read the letters sent to them.

Peary noted it would be easier making these decisions if it was June rather than right before Christmas.

Some owners haven’t made sewer payments in more than three or four years, according to the information provided. “It is not on us, it is on them,” Peary stated.

The board’s philosophy is to work with people, Long said. “We have got to do something,” he said. When fees aren’t paid it hurts other townspeople, he said.

Chairperson William Kenniston asked to have an estimate of the time staff will need to spend on those properties going forward and where the hours would come from given their other responsibilities.

“If there are no consequences, what is the reason for paying,” Gray asked.