A New Britain woman reached out to NBC Connecticut Responds after receiving a $190 utility bill for an address she moved out of months ago.
Bertha Mangiafico received the July statement from an electric company called Northwest Power. The bill shows she owed money for usage between late April and early July.
“I moved out on [April] 29th,” said Mangiafico, who has only recently lived in her own apartment after battling years of homelessness. “[How would I] pay for gas and electricity when I’m not even there?”
Mangiafico says she reached out to Northwest Power and they told her she had to pay. She also sent the invoice to her former property manager and says she never heard back.
Mangiafico felt stuck, afraid of the consequences she’d face either from ignoring the bill, or from paying it.
“I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent or get any food,” she said. “That would’ve hindered me a lot.”
When NBC Connecticut Responds reached out to her property manager, we learned Northwest Power manages the utilities for the entire apartment complex.
The bill should have gone to the managers—not to Mangiafico.
The company told NBC Connecticut they resolved the issue, although the message never got through to Mangiafico.
They are still looking into how the bill landed in Mangiafico’s hands.
