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of the residential properties are now vacant. In many situations, the debt affiliated with the property exceeds the value of the property. From time to time, these properties go up for tax deed sale. There are situations where people have purchased these properties without doing their due diligence and ultimately end up with a property with excessive liens that they cannot afford to pay off. it makes little sense to leave these properties rendered "useless". The table below summarizes some of the key data regarding the 131 water and sewer accounts. Account Category Number of Accounts Water ERUs Sewer ERUs Existing Structures Residential 127 170 133 80 Commercial 4 175 135 4 Totals 131 345 268 84 In similar fashion to the debt reduction offers that were made for reserve accounts, staff proposes two payment options for BCC consideration. Under the first option, the County would waive all of the accrued penalties and interest in exchange for the owner paying all of the remaining utility charges within a defined ninety -day window. The second option would be to extend the payments out for twelve months. Under this option, the County would also collect. ten percent of the accrued penalties and interest. Below is an example of the payoff options for the single-family property with the highest receivable balance. Total Amount Owed Service Availability Penalties & Interest Service Type Payment- Option 1 Payment - Option 2 $67,505 $8,562 $58,943 Water & Sewer $8,562 $14,456 Many of the 131 account holders currently have no interest in activating their utility service at this time. Thus, for any account holder who utilizes one of the payment options, staff suggests allowing the property owner to choose to keep the ERU or to permanently disconnect from the system. Any property owner who chooses to permanently disconnect will be required to sign a document that attests that they understand impact fees and connection charges in place at the time of reconnection will have to be paid before reconnecting to the system. If disconnecting from the system, all physical tie-ins to the utility system will be terminated. Keep in mind that the long-term goal is to settle or write-off the excessive accounts receivable balances and create a means by which to enable the owners of these properties to become viable customers again. If the debt affiliated with these properties remains intact and continues to grow exponentially, this cannot occur. Therefore, if neither payment option is exercised, staff will work with the County Attorney's office to pursue foreclosure. Foreclosure case law suggests that each reoccurring charge is a new lien or starting date, therefore the lien period would start on the date the new charge is incurred for that charge and lasts the five years for foreclosure and the 20 years for the statute of repose. See Bartrum v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 211 So. 3d 1009 (Fla. 2016). Thus, the foreclosure step is necessary in order to allow owners of these properties that have the potential to become viable customers eventually. When the County forecloses on the property, it will be necessary to write off the entire receivable balance so that the County can sell the property without the encumbrance of the utility lien. Depending on the hypothetical sale of the property, the proceeds will be used to pay back IRCDUS some, or all, the accrued service availability charges. 95