ST. LOUIS - From a hospital to housing complexes, some of our area’s largest institutions are behind on their utility bills.

Thousands of account holders owe more than $100 million owed to the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District.

MSD says the top 10 delinquent account holders alone owe millions.

“We’ve already given them the service,” MSD spokesperson Bess McCoy said. “And they haven’t paid for it, which means someone else is having to cover those costs.”

McCoy says paying customers, unfortunately, pick up the slack.

It’s not possible to shut off sewer service, because you can’t just block sewer lines. With MSD serving areas with several water companies, it’s harder to work with each water service.

“Shutoff certainly isn’t off the table, but it certainly is more complicated for us,” McCoy added.

Some on the list are apartment complexes.

“It’s surprising, because I don’t want to get my water shut off,” one renter said.

She rents an apartment at Northern Village where court records indicate the ownership, Mazal in St. Louis, is delinquent $401,013.84. An apartment rep came to talk to us about its tab.

“So, I was a little shocked with that number,” Yossi Malka reacted.

Malka said his group recently bought the property to clean it up and unknowingly inherited this bill.

“We’re not here to screw any companies. We’re here to work with everyone peacefully because there’s no other way,” Malka said.

FOX 2 followed up, “So, you’re not going to run from this?”

“No,” Malka said as he laughed. “Where are we gonna run?”

There’s also a city on the list, Kinloch. We were surprised when we came to get answers to find a newer city hall building.

Court records indicate MSD claims unpaid bills totaling $407,231.80. When we tried getting answers from Kinloch, a City Hall representative said no one was available, and that she wasn’t allowed to share names of public officials

Then we saw the mayor and city manager pull up, so we asked, “MSD is saying that Kinloch is one of the worst offenders when it comes to paying its MSD bill, it’s on the top ten of most delinquent.”

“Well, we don’t have any statements,” the mayor responded.

Carr Square Tenant Corp is another housing company on the delinquency list. It’s a housing area north of downtown where renters were also surprised to hear what reportedly happens to their rent.

A spokesperson in the office we visited did not comment, but an email from a Carr Square rep said they got behind because of “…outdated meters that have given false readings.”

The spokesperson added that Carr Square has agreed to a payment plan, which will bring them current within 12 months.

MSD reported other top nonpayers like SA Hospital Group, reportedly delinquent $365,233.11. It’s a company tied to the now abandoned St. Alexius Hospital property.

FOX 2 was told it inherited the bill from a prior company’s bankruptcy. A spokesperson added that the property is close to being sold and that the tab will be paid off prior to closing.

Other reported delinquent accounts include Etzel place (court records list $240,000), Social Betterment Properties (court records list $371,079.96), and We Did It LLC (court records list $281,429.10).

We notified each one about our report.

Two private individuals are also on the top ten list, but MSD said it cannot provide those names for privacy reasons.

“We don’t bring in any profits and that means any dollar that we’re not collecting is a dollar that we have to bring in from someone who is paying their bills. So, this is a real problem,” McCoy said.

We’ve exposed just a handful of what MSD says is 65,000 accounts that are behind. They have assistance programs to help those in need.

They’re looking for new ways to hold defaulters accountable, so those delinquent accounts don’t continue draining those who pay.