Horst Realty manages the
Village of Pineford, a rental community in Middletown Borough. The Borough
provides electric service to Borough residents, including residents of Pineford. In an oversight most of us can identify with, Horst Realty mailed its roughly $124,000 September electric bill payment with insufficient postage. Because the Borough ultimately received the payment four days late,
it assessed Horst Realty a late fee to the tune of about $12,000 and threatened to cut off all electricity to Pineford if the fee was not immediately paid. Although it reluctantly paid the fee to keep the power on, Horst was not amused. Instead, the company retained Barley attorney
Charles Haws to file suit under the Pennsylvania Utilities Service Tenants Rights Act ("PUSTRA"). It is Horst's position that the ordinance allowing Middleton to charge such late fees is illegal:
[t]he $12,000 doesn't have any reasonable relationship to the costs incurred by the borough due to the lateness of the payment.
Horst further alleges Middletown violated the PUSTRA by failing to provide Pineford residents with notice that they faced possible termination of electrical service. We'll provides updates on this litigation as events warrant.
