Battle between home builders, MUD District illustrates need for state oversight

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - "This particular community is called Waterwood, it's an all but forgotten golf course waterfront community on Lake Livingston, a beautiful little community," said Bill Ellison, founder and president of ASGI Homes.

Folks buying these new homes get their water from the Waterwood MUD District.

For over a year, now the home builder and the MUD District have been in a stalemate.

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The MUD District board president and its attorney say it's simple. ASGI home builders need to pay all the sewer tap fees. But ASGI says the amount the MUD District says it's owed keeps changing.

"In a three day period, they sent three different spreadsheets, and each day it went up $20,000 to $30,000," said Mike Wilson, Vice President over construction for ASGI. "They just keep reaching for straws."

"We had to go though all that nightmare a number that we believe is the correct number and they've almost doubled that number," Ellison said. "They say we have to pay this or we're not turning the water back on. We've got houses that are closing, people moving in, in two days, that we don't have water to."

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Waterwood MUD District president Kevin Cook tells us they found discrepancies to the builder's advantage, but he says they still refuse to pay some $14,000 owed to the utility district.

"We've been to the Public Utility Commission, we've been to T.E.C.Q. We've been to the County Commissioner," Wilson said there's no one to hold them accountable.

"There's no enforcement," said Ellison. "There's nobody for me to turn to other than an attorney."