Cerritos : Curb Painting Curbed

Cerritos has ordered City Curb Service, a business that paints street addresses on curbs, to stop operating in the city after several thousand property owners were wrongly charged for work done by the firm.

City regulations state that residents are under no obligation to pay the curb painter for work completed. Any payments made by residents are strictly voluntary.

But City Curb Service apparently mailed invoices requesting $4.79 to about a third of Cerritos’ 15,000 property owners. In some cases, the work had never been completed. The city immediately revoked City Curb Service’s business license, and told residents who called City Hall that they did not have to pay the company.

In a similar action, the City of Hawaiian Gardens also revoked the company’s business license in that city, and officials in Long Beach are considering filing criminal charges against the firm’s owners for billing its residents for curb-painting.