07/30/2026
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Kristina Moore inherited her childhood home, then the city told her the property has no value until she pays a $228,000 water bill that isn't even hers.
When Kristina Moore inherited her late father's home in the Springwood Estates neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore, she thought the hardest part was behind her.
Then she found a notice from the city taped to the front door.
The notice warned that water service to the property would be shut off within 45 days unless an outstanding balance was paid in full. The balance was $228,000.
Moore had no idea the debt existed until that moment. What she discovered when she started investigating was a billing arrangement that dates back decades and has left her family holding responsibility for an entire neighborhood's water usage.
Springwood Estates is a community of 37 townhomes built in the 1970s in Northeast Baltimore. The development is served by a single master water meter.
The account for that meter, however, is not registered to the homeowners association or to the community collectively. It is tied to her father's property address, and has been for as long as anyone can trace.
That means every drop of water used by all 37 homes in the neighborhood has been billed to one address: her father's house. And the bill for that collective usage has grown, over time, to $228,000.
Moore and her attorney went to Baltimore's Department of Public Works and pulled the lien sheet. The city's position was unambiguous. The property is responsible for the bill. The property cannot be sold until the bill is paid in full.
Moore's attorney, Lisa Ciofani, has been equally unambiguous about how absurd she finds this. "Our whole thing is just put the address for this meter back with the HOA," Ciofani said. "I don't understand how they can hold her liable for 37 properties."
The Springwood Estates HOA president, Regina Johnson, confirmed in a statement that the association is responsible for collecting money from residents and paying the community's water bill.
However, she declined an on-camera interview and said she could not explain how the balance had grown to more than $200,000, and declined to answer additional questions.
The Baltimore Department of Public Works declined to discuss the account, citing the Maryland Public Information Act and stating it could not disclose billing information for a specific customer's water account without authorization.
The department has not responded to questions about why the master meter account is tied to a single residential address rather than the HOA, whether it believes Moore is personally responsible for the debt, or what steps it is taking to resolve the situation.
Master water meters serving entire HOA communities are not unusual. What Ciofani and Moore's attorney say is unusual, and potentially legally indefensible, is having the account for that meter tied to a single private residence rather than the association responsible for the community.
Moore's position is straightforward: she did not use $228,000 worth of water. Her neighbors did.
The billing arrangement that placed her father's address on the master meter account was not something her family chose or was even aware of.
She inherited a house, not a debt belonging to 36 other families.
The city of Baltimore disagrees, or at least has not yet agreed, leaving Moore in a situation where a property she cannot afford to keep is also a property she cannot sell, because a lien for a debt she did not incur is attached to the deed.
